


Sapient

by WanderlustandFreedom



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Dead People, Death, F/M, Married Couple, Married Life, Mystery, Near Death Experiences, Normal Life, Presumed Dead, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28531197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderlustandFreedom/pseuds/WanderlustandFreedom
Summary: Tadashi Hamada ran into SFIT Laboratory and was burnt to a crisp - according to the news. According to him, he saw the blast coming, felt it hit, and saw a completely different laboratory before his eyes. The next time he opened his eyes, his brother was eleven years older and with a ring on his hand. Everything important in his life didn't even exist anymore and his life work was patented under another name. Worst of all, no one knows why - even his big-brained little brotherAnd to be honest, it doesn't feel like very many people even care.
Relationships: Fred | Fredzilla/Original NonBinary Character, Hiro Hamada/Go Go Tomago
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Big Hero Six.

There was ash and smoke everywhere. It was filling his lungs. He dodged the remains of the vending machine and raced up the stairs before the railing melted and collapsed. There was fire everywhere. Bright reds and oranges seared into his vision, so wherever he looked he saw more and more. Things were burning that should not be burning and were turning the flames bright blue and green. He raced up the steps two at a time, ignoring the tight feeling in his chest. His sleeves and legs were on fire. As he came to the first floor, he saw a shadow in the lab door. "Professor Callahan!" He shouted. A lungful of carbon dioxide went down as the words erupted from him. The right side of his face was very hot. He couldn't feel his leg anymore – it had gone numb. The shadow turned. Tadashi took a quick step and tripped. His legs began to spasm. Shadows raced through the flames quick enough for Tadashi to think: "I am going to die." A large black egg surrounded the professor and solidified around him. Tadashi felt the building shake, and an explosion went off. He smelled zinc sulfate wash over him as several bits of rubble bounced off his broken, burned body. His ears popped, and the pain intensified. It was dark and quiet. Then, the clear sound of alarms filled the air.

"FIRE, FIRE, FIRE, FIRE." A monotonous male voice repeated. "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE, FIRE."

"Someone grab the extinguisher!" Someone yelled.

"We can't! It can't be used on people! Stop, drop, and roll!" Someone yelled back.

"He obviously can't roll, look at-"

"STAND BACK!" There were loud, heavy, clanking footsteps, and then ice hit him hard. Tadashi yelled. His eyes were still closed, and his brain was about to shut off. Positive feedback rolled into his brain as he struggled to push himself up and open his lids. A girl with electric blue hair that was spiky and completely shaved on both sides of her head was reaching towards him in concern. They were somewhere white, though he couldn't make out the details.

"Ah, James, you shouldn't have done that," She scolded. Her voice sounded fuzzy. One or both of his ears must not be working.

"I put out the fire," Someone told her.

"Hey, hey sir," She called to him. His vision started to go wacky. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he shuddered before he collapsed onto the burned side of his face. "Stay with me!" She yelled, sounding like a scratched record. Tadashi swallowed a gulp of air that tasted faintly of Zinc and passed out.


	2. The Achievement of Engagement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a warmer October day, Hiro proposes to his long-time girlfriend. A radio announcement catches their attention on the way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you ever gone Four-Wheeler riding? It's so fun!!

_I do not own Big Hiro Six._

* * *

Gogo hopped out of the truck before it stopped moving, just to freak Wasabi out. It wasn't like they were going thirty miles an hour either. Hiro was pulling into the lot going about an even five. Still, Wasabi freaked out, just like when she'd gotten on her knees and stuck her entire top half out the passenger side window, just like when she'd turned the radio up before Hiro crossed some train tracks, and just like when she'd punched Hiro's arm as he went around a sharp bend.

Wasabi was a worrywart.

Hiro parked the car and rolled his eyes at her. He was used to her crazy. He knew she did it to be flashy and sassy and to show off. Also, because scaring Wasabi was funny. Even after almost eleven years of hero work on the BH6 team, Wasabi feared heights, hated misalignment, and was a stickler for rules. Sure, it had probably saved Gogo's life a dozen times but _hey!_ Her spontaneous attitude had probably done the same twice as many times. That's how teamwork was supposed to work.

As Honey-Lemon, Fred, Charlie, and Wasabi disentangled themselves inside the car, Hiro stepped out and went around to the trailer. "Gogo!" He called. "Come and give me a hand, would you?"

She rolled her eyes and started helping him loosen the pulleys that were holding down four prize-worthy, four-wheeled bikes.

A lot had changed in eleven years. Fred had gone to college for video game design and ended up designing a few super-popular games based on the superheroes he adored so much. And, you know, based off himself. That's where he'd met Charlie, who was non-binary and had purple and green hair. Charlie was tall, skinny, and worked with graphic design. Ze had a mole on one side of zer nose that looked like a collection of freckles and a lip ring. How Charlie, who was a vegan and a firm-to-earth old soul ever fell for pizza-loving fantastical Fred was beyond Gogo, but it wasn't her relationship, so she didn't mess too much with it. She liked hers better anyway.

Wasabi was a professor at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, where everyone had graduated from. He had never really moved on from being a student and didn't feel like leaving the school anytime soon. He didn't have a significant other but considered himself married to his work. Fine by Gogo, she didn't want to know the kind of person who'd fall for Wasabi's neat-freak ways.

Honey-Lemon had a job as a fifth-grade teacher and worked for Krei Tech when school was out. She invented cool things for him, with occasional assistance from the rest of the gang, more specifically Hiro. In the months leading up to summer, she'd cut her hair off into a bob and gotten a second piercing in her ears. Gogo suspected Honey was looking for a change in her life. She'd been trying the online dating thing for about two years now, and it just wasn't working out as well as she'd hoped.

Hiro had gotten taller than her, something which saddened and excited her. He was taller than Fred, Wasabi, and Gogo, but shorter than everyone else in their group. He dyed the tips of his hair different colors from time to time and had asked Gogo for permission to get her name tattooed on his shoulder a year ago. He had a few more muscles but was still lanky and nerdy. He'd spend a day locked up in his personal lab at San Fransokyo any day over fighting crime around the city. Even though he'd graduated, Allison Callahan let him have his own lab for all the help he'd given the school, and to try to repay the fact his brother had died because of her father. Water under the bridge.

Hiro spent his days inventing, which was great because that was what he'd always wanted to do since he was fourteen, grumbling as his brother hauled him into 'the Nerd Lab'. Some of his inventions were used on the DL to improve daily life for everyone, like new computer chips and better chemical storage containers, and microscope upgrades. Others were mass-produced and patented by either Krei Tech Industries or Hiro himself, like the BayMax robotic nurses in memory of his brother, clothing that could cool you down or warm you up, anti-nightmare pills, or sunglasses that could connect to your kindle, so you could read while you talked to people. He was working on connecting them to something more complex, like a phone, but so far, the various technologies different cell phone companies used were throwing him for a loop.

Gogo, on the other hand, had gotten really into the whole Save-the-City thing. She worked the police in-and-out-of suit as a uniformed officer who sometimes went rogue. All in all, pretty good life.

Hiro finished loosening the pulleys and went around to let down the back of the trailer. Gogo climbed up and began removing the plastic wheel-blocks around the tires of the four bikes. These ATV's had been specially created by Hiro and herself. They were supposed to be meeting up with some old biker friends of Gogo's to put them to the test on the rocky mountains of the Hida. Gogo climbed on the first bike as soon as if was free and turned around to make sure everyone was out of the way. Hiro leaned against the trailer waiting for her, well out of the way and with a lazy smirk on his face. The rest of the gang was hiding beside Cass's old truck, which she and Hiro had renovated a few years ago when Cass upgraded her vehicle. Smart of them. Gogo switched on the bike, put it into gear, and zoomed off the trailer. She took a turn around the parking lot, still going backward, just to hear the satisfying rumble of the perfect engine.

She stopped a short way away from the trailer. Hiro strolled up and put his elbows on the front as she switched it off. "What did you think, Genius? Did we build a good bike?"

Hiro shrugged. "I dunno. I only heard it go by. The driver is a pretty reckless lady, you know?" Gogo chuckled as Hiro leaned against the bike. He presented his hands, palm up, and asked: "Can I hold your hands?"

She raised an eyebrow but complied. He took her strong, small hands in his larger, calloused ones and smiled. "We did good, Gogo."

"We _always_ do good." She rolled her eyes. She took her hands back and climbed off. "Should we unload the rest of them and get going?"

"We have to wait for your friends, first." Hiro pointed out. "But let's go. I'm as eager as you are to ride the bikes."

"Race you." She challenged. He pushed off the bike and began to dash back to the trailer. They were only about ten feet away, but it was still a lost cause. Gogo brushed past him and climbed on the next bike. She turned it on as Hiro rolled his eyes and put a leg on the trailer to climb onto another one. Within two minutes, the trailer was empty. Hiro put the guard rail back up and put the plastic wedges and pulleys into the back of his truck.

"Headphones?" He asked, holding out cloth bags. Everyone in the group took one except for Hiro and Gogo, who had a special pair Hiro had engineered just for kicks and giggles. While everyone else's headphones came in sets of two, theirs had four earbuds that all connected to the same Bluetooth device simultaneously, meaning they could listen to the same thing at the same time. They were compact and didn't stick out of their ears, meaning they could put helmets on without the headphones getting caught on the helmet. It was similar to the speakers in Gogo's superhero helmet, except removable.

Another truck pulled into the otherwise deserted parking lot. Two girls with long, light brown hair leaned out of the windows and waved. Gogo waved back. While the other group unloaded their two bikes, Hiro went around to do last-minute checks on their bikes. Fuel, oil, and ahem, special features. Things Wasabi wouldn't want to know about.

In the second group were three girls and one boy. Two couples. The three girls all had matching long, light brown hair and several nose, brow, and lip piercings. They all had short shorts in varying shades of blue, and brown cowboy boots. One had a plaid shirt, another had a shirt from some summer camp, and the last one had that same shirt but ripped up and with tassels sewn out of strips at the bottom. She wore a solid-color belly shirt underneath. The boy had a plain white shirt, tan shorts, black cowboy boots, and red contacts.

"Hey, Gogo." The girl with plaid said.

"Hey, Margo," Gogo responded. They high-fived. "Kay, I know Leslie and Emily, but can you introduce me to tall, dark, and handsome here?" She pointed at the boy of their group.

Hiro jumped in before the boy could introduce himself. "Thanks for the compliment. Hi, I'm Hiro, nice to meet you." He stuck out his hand to Gogo for dramatic effect.

Margo laughed. "I like him. Is this your crush, Gogo?" She elbowed Gogo in the ribs a little.

"Crush?" Gogo asked, confused. "Aren't we a little old for crushes?"

"It's okay, dear. We'll have you two together by the time we leave today." Emily waved her off. Gogo exchanged a look with Hiro, and turned around to see Wasabi, Fred, and Charlie staring at her with expressions like: Really? Again?

"I'm Mark." Mark introduced himself. "I'm with Margo." He wrapped an arm around his girlfriend and turned her head to give her a quick kiss. Gogo made a sound like a retch and stuck a finger in her mouth. Hiro snickered.

"Oh, don't be like that," Leslie grumbled. "Give it a little time and both you and he will be doing that together."

There was a sudden loud thump from the other side of the truck as Wasabi banged his head into the door.

Gogo smiled innocently. "In your dreams." She said sweetly.

Another two thumps from Wasabi.

Hiro turned around. "Wasabi, you dent my truck and I'll dent you. Come on, guys. Come introduce yourselves."

The group shuffled around, introductions were made, and Hiro offered the newcomers some Bluetooth headphones. They outlined a trail up a few cliffs, passing two lakes, crossing the same river three different times, and ending at a modest waterfall. "Watch out for cows," Mark warned. "The farmers let them roam around this time of year."

Honey Lemon and Wasabi got their own bikes. Mark and Margo, or the M's, as Gogo began to dub them, shared a bike. Leslie and Emily also shared a bike with Leslie behind Emily, where she started to bite her girlfriend's neck a little. The three girls insisted on putting Hiro and Gogo on a bike together, which was a huge deal because Gogo and Hiro had already been planning on sharing. That left Fred at the head of one bike, screaming that he was ready for action as poor conservative Charlie awkwardly figured out where was a good place to put zer hands without things seeming sensual.

Hiro and Gogo had a CD in the truck that they'd burned about five years ago after they'd both started dating. Since CD's weren't the most compact thing, they also had a playlist on Gogo's MP3 player. It was mostly pop and rap and rock music with a few cheesy country songs. There were also momento songs that had been playing in the right place at the right time and after the fact they'd decided they'd better get. They put in their headphones and hit shuffle as they began.

Hiro let Gogo drive because a) she was the better driver and b) he was perfectly happy to put his arms around his girlfriend's waist with her permission and admire the scenery while listening to good music. Mark and Margo took the lead with Hiro and Gogo following since Mark knew the area best. Everyone else fell into line with Leslie and Emily bringing up the rear to make sure none of the others got lost.

As they drove, Hiro used a Go-Pro to film the scenery. They saw a few deer and a muskrat or two, and at one point Fred gave everyone a scare by screaming "SKUNK" at the top of his lungs. Animal life and vegetation died out as they reached the cliff section, where the trail wound around bendy curves, and the only thing protecting them from the 70+ foot drop was a rotting fence of wood. Wasabi, obviously, loved every second.

After about an hour and a half of fast-paced driving, they stopped at the first lake. It was more like a soggy, brown reservoir. Mark explained that there was an abandoned log house about a half-mile off the trail. Back when it was running, they used to dump all the waste and trash from the log house into the reservoir. While Fred and Charlie walked along the lakeside and Fred pretended to push Charlie in several times, Hiro and Gogo sat next to each other in the sun on their four-wheeler. Margo and Mark wandered over, and not-so-subtly pushed Gogo into Hiro. The two watched them walk away with Mark's hands in Margo's back pockets lazily and untangled themselves as soon as they walked away.

"They're gonna freak out when they find out we're actually a couple," Hiro murmured.

"Why does this always happen?" Gogo asked, turning and propping her feet up on the handlebars.

"Because you and Hiro show little-to-no emotion towards each other?" Wasabi answered as he walked over. A wet towel was slung over his shoulders and sunscreen was slathered all over his brown face. He gulped down half of a Dasani water bottle in one go as Gogo rolled her eyes. Hiro moved to sit on the footrests of the machine. Gogo pulled a water bottle out of the containment packs attached to the four-wheelers and took a few sips as she played with the sunlight.

"You're going to get heatstroke if you don't drink more water." Wasabi cautioned. "Or altitude sickness."

"Is that where Honey is?" Hiro asked as he took out a water and a granola bar. Gogo looked up to realize their blonde friend wasn't around. She must be sick somewhere around here.

"Yeah," Wasabi confirmed. He gulped down the rest of his water bottle and wandered back to his bike to put it in the recycling trash bag he'd brought.

Gogo stretched out in the sunlight. Hiro leaned his head back so that the tips of his wispy hair tickled her belly through her shirt. She moved her head and murmured: "Can I play with your hair?"

"Go ahead," Hiro said, eyes closed. He yawned a little.

Gogo threaded her fingers through Hiro's thick, fluffy hair and chuckled. "Good thing I'm driving, huh?"

"I could drive if you want." He told her. "You could take a nap in the sun and miss the rest of the scenery."

"You know this is a round trip, right?" Gogo snorted. "Do you want to drive?"

"The better question is: Do you think it's safe for me to drive?" Hiro opened one eye, and they laughed. Gogo removed her hand and began to drink the rest of her water. Hiro got another granola bar and passed her one as well.

"I've got a question that's been asked before," Hiro said.

"Hopefully, I'll have an answer that hasn't been heard before," Gogo responded.

"Marriage. What do you think?" Hiro asked.

Gogo tapped out a pattern on the seat of the bike. "We have talked about this before."

"Yup. Feelings changed at all?"

"Not really." She sat up a little straighter. "I'm still in love. I'm probably going to stay in love. And we've already talked about how we can't go holding each other down because it won't work." Gogo shook her head. "Whenever you're ready, I'm ready."

"Are you upset I haven't asked yet?" Hiro asked, turning his head to look up at her.

"No," Gogo answered honestly. "And for the record, I'm just as capable of asking. If I wanted to tie the knot and was upset you were taking too long, you know I'd take matters into my own hands." She folded her hands across her stomach and looked up at the sky. "I'm in this weirdly content phase of life where I'd be happy to get married but I'm content it's not time yet. You know what I mean?"

Hiro shrugged. "I've just been wondering lately. It _has_ been a while since we discussed it."

"I know." Gogo agreed.

After about a thirty-minute break, they started again. Honey emerged from behind several trees looking quite green. She drank half of a water and ate two rice Krispies, which seemed to help immensely.

Hiro drove and Gogo tapped out the rhythm of the songs they were listening to on his stomach. They passed the second lake, which looked much clearer than the first, and about three minutes from the waterfall one of their momento songs came on. Gogo wasn't listening at first, but then she felt Hiro start humming and heard the familiar words.

"I'll take this chance, so call me thine. I've been waiting all my life." She mumble-sang as Hiro hummed. She adjusted her arms around his middle.

They came around a boulder and saw the waterfall. It wasn't the most amazing thing in the history of ever, but it was pretty and had lots of mist around it. They parked their six bikes in a line and took the keys with them. Honey and Charlie went down to sit in the water, where Fred splashed them. Margo, Mark, Leslie and Emily all slipped away to make out with their gfs/bf. Wasabi eyed Hiro and Gogo, who remained on their bikes a few minutes later than everyone else, then began to pick up smooth, pretty stones out of the frigid water to skip them across the surface of the pool. Hiro watched Fred pull a soaking-wet Charlie up for a quick peck, and then they sat down in the pool to shield themselves from the hot day.

Hiro elbowed Gogo. "Pretty view," He said.

She elbowed back. "I think I liked the trip better."

"Me too," He admitted. "Let's go explore."

They wandered into the trees, avoiding the occasional cow pie, and taking pictures with their cell phones. Their headphones continued playing in one of their ears each.

"That's a cool leaf," Hiro said, bending over to pick up a fiery red and gold leaf. "I didn't realize leaves were already changing."

"It's almost October," Gogo deadpanned. "Honey and Wasabi have been teaching for almost two months now."

"Yeah, it just didn't click." Hiro shrugged.

"There's a cool rock," Gogo said, plucking a large, perfectly circular rock off the ground. She tossed it in her palm once and then hurled it at a nearby tree, which Hiro examined.

"That tree almost looks like the talking tree from Pocahontas." He said.

"Yeah, but this is a different type of tree," Gogo said. She said down and picked up a pinecone. "We could get a bunch of these, take them home, and paint them. My grandma used to do that all the time."

"Cool," Hiro said. His eyes hovered on Gogo's for a few seconds. Gogo turned to look for other things to pick up, and Hiro dug into his pocket. He let out a little breath and said: "Look what I found."

Gogo turned back around, expecting to see another rock or leaf with a cool pattern. Her brain short-circuited when she saw Hiro with an impish grin on his face, proudly offering a ring to her.

"It's gold with a diamond, that's all I remember from what the jeweler told me. But what I noticed is that it's deeper set in the ring, so you won't snag it doing all your off-road and on-road racing, and it's not flashy so it won't get stolen. And I had it engraved." He turned the ring sideways. On either side of the diamond was a name. Hiro's on the left, Gogo's on the right. Gogo reached up hesitantly and touched the hand that was holding the ring. Hiro's grin turned into a full-fledged smile.

"I'm in love, Gogo. I really am. We've never been the clingiest, flashiest couple, but I adore what we've built. It's been almost six years of hard work. We built everything we have now from the ground up. And whenever you're ready, I'm ready to keep building with you. You already know you don't have to answer now, but I'm still going to ask if you'd marry me."

Gogo felt a smile stretch across her lips. "Yeah." She agreed. "Let's do it. Let's invent something unbelievable." Hiro smiled back at her and then handed her the ring. She put in on her left ring finger and then showed Hiro for approval.

He moved so their knees tapped each other and whispered: "Can I give you a hug?"

"I want one." She shrugged, and they wrapped their arms around each other for a few quick seconds. Gogo took the opportunity to sigh in contentment and bury her nose into his black and purple shirt. He rubbed the area of her back in between her shoulder blades and then they separated with smiles. Hiro stood up, offered her his hand, and after she accepted, he helped her to her feet. He moved to leave, but Gogo kept hold of his hands to keep him in the same place. "Can I have a quick kiss?" She asked.

He chuckled, and they shared a fast peck. It warmed Gogo's heart and made her curl her toes, even though it barely lasted for three seconds. She was a bit sensitive, since the two of them don't do this often.

"Want to hold hands going up?" He asked.

"I do," Gogo said, testing the words. The implication made Hiro smile, which turned her grin into a mile-wide stretch. He led her back to the waterfall, where Fred had his arms around Charlie and was holding zer under the frigid shower of the fall as ze shouted in indignation. Honey couldn't stop laughing as Charlie cursed and screamed at Fred. The scene reminded Gogo of when Hiro asked her to be his girlfriend and after she said yes, rubbed mud in her hair. Technically, it was payback because she'd done it to him, but she dumped him, and he'd had to re-ask her the next date.

Mark and Margo stumbled back into the clearing with Leslie and Emily trailing behind them. Emily must have re-applied her lipstick a few too many times. Leslie's neck was sticky with nude coloring. Mark's lips were turning blue. It looked painful. Margo whooped when she saw Gogo and Hiro's linked hands. "I told you guys that we'd get you together by the end of this trip!" She screamed.

Hiro chuckled, and let go of Gogo's hand. She was still smiling. Her face felt tight. "Yeah, thanks I guess." He answered.

Wasabi, who was laying in the shade of a tree beside the waterfall, looked up. "Did you do it?" He called.

"Yeah, he did!" Leslie yelled. "Check it out, new couple!" She screamed.

"Uh, huh. Definitely new." Gogo laughed. She brought her left hand up and set it on her cheek. Wasabi began to laugh maniacally as Margo, Leslie, and Emily trained their eyes on the ring. Mark didn't seem to notice.

"Wait…" Margo trailed off. Her face went puce. "I'm confused."

"Is that an engagement ring?" Leslie asked, a little too loud. Fred and Honey whipped their heads over.

"Oh, congrats." Honey said, standing up. Her outfit was completely soaked, but her hair was dry. "I thought something was going on when Wasabi kept asking if you'd forgotten anything."

Gogo chuckled. She had just assumed Wasabi was being Wasabi. "Yeah. I guess I'm spoken-for, officially!" She smiled at Hiro, who'd gone back to lean against their bike.

"Group photo!" Fred yelled. He rushed out from under the waterfall, spewing drops of water everywhere.

"Couple photo first!" Honey yelled, holding out her hand to stop him from soaking Hiro and Gogo. She whipped out her phone, which was protected by the latest and greatest waterproof technology yet – a ziplock baggie – and ushered Gogo to go stand beside Hiro in front of the bikes.

Gogo smiled brightly. "Can I put my arm around you?" She asked Hiro. He nodded and moved so she could tuck herself under his arm. His hand landed lightly on top of her bicep. They faced Honey with her camera and smiled.

Group photos followed, and then Honey started going crazy. "Hiro, Gogo, one kiss for the camera please?" She begged. Hiro and Gogo exchanged looks. "Or can you at least hold hands and face the waterfall?" Hiro rolled his eyes. Eventually, Honey gave up.

They played in the waterfall and everyone teamed up to avenge poor Charlie, who had been soaked to the bone by Fred. They spread Fred out eagle style and, holding onto his arms and legs, dunked him in the water until his teeth were chattering so hard, he couldn't even beg for mercy anymore. Hiro and Gogo stood together under the rush of water, and then everyone began to towel off and climb on their bikes. As Gogo and Hiro started their music again, Leslie, Emily, and Margo all came over to crowd their space.

"How long have you been dating?" Margo asked as Leslie grabbed Gogo's hand and began to examine the ring.

"Almost six years," Gogo answered. She gently pulled her hand back.

"Six years? You barely act like you're together," Leslie said, slinging an arm around Gogo's shoulders.

"So we've been told." Hiro sighed dramatically. He pulled his helmet on. "I like us though. I think we've got it good."

"Me too," Gogo answered. She giggled – which she didn't do very often, mind you, and offered Hiro her hand. He used it to propel himself onto the bike. Gogo moved into the passenger seat. "Can I put my arms around you as we drive?" She asked.

"You don't have to ask." Margo raised an eyebrow. "He's _your_ boyfriend."

"Fiancé, actually. And of course I have to ask. It's _his_ body." Gogo smiled.

"Oh!" Hiro said like he'd had a revelation. "I'm your fiancé now."

"Yeah." Gogo laughed. "And I'm your fiancée."

"Wow." Hiro shook his head as if he were in a daze. "Yeah, you can put your arms around me. That's okay."

Leslie stared. "You're a little weird." Emily nodded in agreement and put her head down on Leslie's shoulder.

Neither Hiro or Gogo said anything as the girls spread out. Emily kept stealing kisses from Leslie as the brunette picked up her helmet and started to put it on. Charlie was driving on Fred's bike because Fred had exhausted himself. He lay draped over Charlie's back, snoring loudly as Charlie maneuvered his head off zir shoulder so zie could control the bike.

"I'm glad we're not like that. Sure, they're cute, but I like us better," Hiro muttered.

"Me too." Gogo agreed.

They pulled out in the same order as when they'd left. The water evaporated off their clothes as they went. Gogo kept her face buried in his shirt with his permission. They went straight back to the parking lot; no in-between stops.

They all pitched in to reload the six bikes onto the two trailers, though everyone jumped out of the way when Gogo climbed on one and revved the engine. At long last, they parted ways and climbed back into the truck. Charlie, Fred, and Wasabi climbed in the back, where Charlie and Fred curled up together and began to lightly snore. Wasabi buckled up and huddled close to the window.

Honey-Lemon sat in the front passenger seat and Gogo sat in the middle beside Hiro. Once he pulled out and started navigating them off the mountain, Gogo silently offered him her hand to hold and then leaned her head against his shoulder. The radio was playing in the background.

"You guys are really touchy-feely today." Honey commented.

"They just got engaged, Honey," Wasabi said from the backseat. "It'll die off by tomorrow."

"Oh, ha, ha." Hiro rolled his eyes and squeezed her hand. On the life air, the newsman began to report the weather and traffic. Gogo began to drift off. All background noise faded away.

Then, suddenly, Hiro's shoulder slipped away. She jolted back to an upright position. Hiro was frowning, reaching to the radio. The car swerved a little, and Wasabi shrieked.

"Turn that up." Hiro requested. Gogo blinked herself awake and reached for the volume dial.

"-cited incident at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology where an undocumented person appeared in a private student laboratory. Police secured the area and classes were let out as authorities attempt to discover where the person came from."

"How did they find the guy, Frank?"

"According to student reports, he appeared in the laboratory, on fire. He did not use an entrance but simply appeared in the center of the room. One student put the fire out and other was able to make eye contact before the poor soul passed out. He's currently being held at San Fransokyo Hospital until further information can be garnered."

"Fascinating. Also today, a local gang terrorized-"

"Interesting," Hiro muttered. "Sorry, I heard that they mentioned the institute and was worried that this student named James might have blown up something bad. He's been testing improvised weaponry lately." He drummed his hands on the wheel.

"Someone… appeared in a lab?" Honey asked, staring at the radio in confusion.

"Apparently. Maybe someone in Mrs. Benedik's class decided to try to experiment with teleportation again. That might have set them on fire." Hiro suggested. Wasabi let out a groan from the backseat.

"Ever since Silent Sparrow was revealed, thousands of kids keep trying to replicate that stupid machine. You have no idea how many times I've had to remind people what happened to Abigail Callahan. You think people would take a hint." Wasabi complained.

Gogo rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone. She went to the school's website and found a little report on the mystery person. With a little extra digging, she managed to locate a live news clip. "Says here the hospital reported he's stable, but in a coma," Gogo announced as the video loaded. A burst of sound filled the car.

"Here today, when an unauthorized male appeared in the middle of a private lab without warning and on fire. Authorities say the person has not been identified, but there is a long list of suspects. All students are accounted for meanwhile rumors continue to spread on the man's identity and how he got there." Gogo squinted as the woman on her screen continued to talk. A badly-burned body was being wheeled out of the building on a white stretcher. Gogo waited until she had a clear view of the person and then paused the video. She examined them closely. No one she knew.

Honey looked over her shoulder. She sucked in a breath. "Who is that?" She asked.

"They don't know. I don't recognize him." Gogo shrugged.

"You don't?" Honey exclaimed, staring with wide eyes at the screen. Wasabi leaned up from the back seat.

"Do you know him, Honey?" Wasabi asked. He paused. "Actually, he does look… a little familiar."

It clicked in Gogo's head. "Oh, Hiro. Pull over please."

He did, stopping beside a green meadow. Gogo handed her phone to him. Hiro squinted. "I don't know who that is." He admitted after a second. "Looks familiar, but I can't put my finger on him."

"Hiro…" Gogo murmured. "I think… it looks like Tadashi."

Hiro sat back as if he'd been slapped. His cheeks took on a green tone. "No." He snapped and put the car back into gear. "Don't do that to me. That's not cool guys."

Gogo put her phone away as Hiro pulled back into traffic. He kept his jaw set and his knuckles turned white from holding the wheel so hard as he took deep breaths.

"Do you want me to drive?" She asked.

"No." He snapped. "I've got this, I can do it."

Gogo sat back in the middle seat and turned her ring around and around her finger until Hiro's breathing slowed down. Finally, he took a hand off the wheel and offered it to her. She let him take it.

"I'm fine." He promised. "I'm okay. It's okay." Those words seemed to repeat indefinitely. She squeezed his hand and swallowed as they continued home.

* * *

_I'm not a diehard Hirogo shipper, but she's the only person in the group I can see Hiro having anything romantic with._


	3. The Conditions of Visions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiro is having a hard time comprehending what's going on. Meanwhile, Tadashi is trying to wake up.

After unloading the bikes and dropping their friends off at their homes, Hiro took Gogo home to the Lucky Cat Café. After all, they had an engagement to celebrate. It was almost five when they pulled into Cass’s garage. Instead of using the garage door, Hiro and Gogo conspired to sneak around and see if she’d notice them in the dinner rush as they walked in. They hurried around to the front door.

The Lucky Cat Café’s windows were dark. The shades were drawn tight. A paper taped to the other side of the door read: “Closed for the rest of today. Sorry for the inconvenience. ;(“ Hiro and Gogo exchanged a cursory look, and then Hiro began to fish for the correct key among the garage key, his various lab and attendance keys, and his car keys. Once he found it, he jangled the lock open and held the door open for Gogo as she walked inside. Hiro locked the door behind him.

The café was tidy. All the appliances had been shut off, including the background radio. It was dark. Hiro peeked into the kitchen as they passed to make sure she wasn’t hiding away, baking. She wasn’t, but a yummy smell wafted from upstairs. Gogo followed her nose and climbed the stairs to the apartment level that Cass slept on. She set her hand on the railing and stopped in the small kitchen. Cass was sitting at one of the dining chairs with it pushed all the way back against the cupboards. Her work apron was strewn on another chair, and a broom was propped in the frame of an open cupboard. The table was half set, and Cass’s home phone was set on the table in front of her, slowly going dead.

“Aunt Cass?” Hiro asked as he came into the room. Cass lifted her head from where it had been sitting, supported by her hands, and she blinked blearily at him. Gogo recognized the immediate signs of emotional exhaustion. Hiro moved quickly into the room and took his aunt’s arm.

“Hiro?” Cass asked. “I didn’t realize you’d be back so soon… I’m not ready yet.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I can help – have you been crying Aunt Cass?” Hiro touched his Aunt’s face carefully and Gogo noticed red streaks around Cass’s eyes.

Cass patted Hiro on the shoulder. “Tell you about it later.” She whispered. She looked up and met Gogo’s eyes. “Did you say yes? Am I going to have an in-law?”

Gogo’s face broke into a smile. She showed Cass the ring as Hiro opened the oven doors. A large platter of chicken wings was cooking. Gogo loved this recipe. Cass would use genuine spice rub combined with soy sauce, fresh herbs, and other spices to rub into the chicken. A little lemon juice and it was a small slice of heaven on earth. She moved to straighten the table and pulled down dishes for three from the open cupboards. She and Hiro quickly straightened up the apartment before they sat down at the table and waited for the chicken to be just that _little bit_ more done.

Hiro took Cass’s hands from across the table. “What happened Aunt Cass?” He whispered. “Is everything okay?”

Cass sniffled and let go of Hiro to grab a box of tissues from beside the microwave. “I’ll be okay.” She whispered. She tapped her chest above her heart a little and smiled softly. “I’m so happy for you guys.”

“Cass,” Gogo said. “Tell us.”

Cass choked back a sob into a tissue and wiped her eyes. “There was an accident at the Institute today. Someone appeared-“

“In the middle of the labs.” Hiro cut her off. Gogo tapped his foot with hers.

“Yes, I didn’t think you’d have heard up in the mountains. Anyway, there were lots of rumors and people saying that it might be…” Cass swallowed. Gogo reached over to take the older woman’s hand.

“Tadashi?” She asked, quietly.

Cass broke down into sobs and buried her face away in her hands. “The hospital just called. He’s a match. That man they have down there, he’s our Tadashi!”

Hiro pushed his chair back with wide eyes. He and Gogo stared at each other as Cass wept. Conflicting emotions battled in his eyes. “I-“ Hiro choked. “I need a minute.” He circled around Cass’s chair without touching her and disappeared upstairs.

Gogo wasn’t sure if it’d be better if she checked on Hiro or stayed with Cass and let him have his space. Cass’s sobs sounding like they were coming from the gall of bitterness, not the mountain of cheer that Cass had always been before. She pushed her chair close to Cass and took the older woman up in a hug, just like she had with Hiro back after he’d left them on Krei’s secret island.

Tadashi, Tadashi. Memories and sorrow that Gogo had thought she’d conquered after the last few years came writhing back to the surface. Her throat constricted. She and Cass held onto each other and gradually fell onto the floor as they sobbed their broken hearts away. They only paused to pull the chicken out to prevent it from burning. Hiro couldn’t come back downstairs. After they finished crying, they wrapped up a plate for Cass to take up to him. Family matters. Gogo took a chicken leg on a plate and went to sit on the stairs, where it was dark and quiet, and she couldn’t hear Hiro and Cass’s crying as well. She texted everyone in the group the news but turned the chat off before they could begin to ask questions she didn’t have answers to. She went home without seeing her fiancé that night. It was the first time in a long time she’d left the Café like this.

* * *

“Congratulations to two of my favorite people in the whole world, Hiro and Gogo!” Honey-Lemon’s Facebook post read. “They’re finally engaged after six years of dating. Hiro asked on our group trip today and she SAID. Yes!” Attached were the pictures that Honey Lemon had taken of them. Gogo managed to crack a smile as she looked at them. The rear driver-side door opened behind Wasabi, and Hiro and Cass climbed in. Both looked dramatically pale and sickly.

Wasabi waited until both of his new passengers and clicked their seat belts into place and then pulled away from the curb. He was driving them to the hospital to see Tadashi for the first time in ten years. Hopefully, they would get their questions answered. Fred and Charlie had a class together at the moment, so they’d drop in together a little later. Charlie hadn’t known Tadashi, of course, but Fred had been devastated with the rest to learn that he was alive and in the hospital.

They reached the hospital as visiting hours opened. Cass led the group up to the main desk hesitantly.

“Name?” The receptionist asked.

“Hi, um, I’m Cassandra Hamada? I received a call from here last night about my nephew, Tadashi Hamada?” Cass shifted her weight from foot to foot.

“The fire victim?” The receptionist asked.

“Yes. Can we see him?” Cass replied.

“There’s not much to see.” The lady admitted. “Are you all kin?”

Hiro nodded wordlessly as Cass said they were all close friends and relatives. The lady asked for identification, and then a nurse in blue scrubs opened a door.

“Cassandra?” She asked upon seeing the group. “For Tadashi?”

Everyone nodded wordlessly. The nurse gestured for them to follow.

Gogo considered taking Hiro’s hand. He was staring at their surrounding without expression, taking in the other patients and rooms they were led past. Finally, they were ushered into a white wash room with blue tiles. One wall had a window made of one-way glass. They all peered inside. On a level about five feet below them was Tadashi, in a hospital bed, with thousands of wires hooked up to him. The only other person in the room was Honey Lemon, who looked like she’d been there a while.

“He’s comatose.” The nurse explained. “Severe burns, especially along his head, feet, and on his ribcage. Of course, that’s not what we’re most concerned about.” She scanned an ID in the doorway and lead them down a short flight of stairs. “See, it’s a bit of an odd thing, but Tadashi Hamada was twenty-one when he died. This young man, who our Baymax nurse identified as Tadashi using his medical file, is the same age. Of course, that’s a problem since it’s been eleven years since Tadashi turned twenty-one. Unfortunately, we have no other records and… I admit he does bear a strong resemblance. The lady in here also confirmed it was Tadashi based on sight.”

The nurse punched in a quick code on a keypad, and a door slid open to reveal Tadashi, comatose in his bed, with Honey sitting beside him. Gogo couldn’t stand it anymore. She turned to Hiro and offered her hand. Hiro turned to look at it, then quickly clasped their hands together. They took a breath as one.

“Hey Honey,” Wasabi said, staring at the body of his long-fallen comrade as he walked to stand beside her.

“Hey guys,” Honey-Lemon said softly. Gogo paused to get a good look at their friend. Her mascara was smeared under her eyes, and her hair was combed but parted unevenly. Gogo decided not to say anything. After all, none of them was a hundred percent today.

Hiro let go of her hand and pulled up a chair for Cass up to Tadashi’s other side as the nurse checked Tadashi’s diagnostics. Honey stood up wobblily so that Hiro could sit on the other side of his brother. Gogo followed him. He sat down and stared at his brother’s hands. They were not as badly burned as the rest of him. A few scrapes and cuts, clean of any ash. His hands had obviously been clenched running in. The skin there was perfect. Gogo could see the calluses he had on his fingers from working on Baymax.

The greater part of Tadashi’s hair was singed. Parts had been burned off completely, and you could see the raw, scorched flesh through his hair. A great, red, nasty burn stretched over the right side of his face, covering his eye and reaching his jawline. The area around his eyes was miscolored a nasty black/brown shade.

A hospital gown and blanket covered most of his body, but Gogo saw burns of varying degrees going up both his arms and there were areas where clear or yellow-tinged pus was seeping through the material that covered him. Tadashi smelled of all things hospital.

Everyone in the room was silent. Cass gingerly took her comatose nephew’s hand as silent tears began to wrack her body. Honey Lemon had pulled a chair up on Hiro’s side. She was swaying as she tried to sit up straight. Wasabi leaned against the wall with a blank expression as he watched Tadashi. Hiro was taking deep breaths as he lifted a shaky hand and prodded an area of Tadashi’s hand that was free of any mark. When he drew his hand back, he examined it closely as if it had lied to him about Tadashi really being there.

Gogo sat on the edge of the hospital bed, careful of Tadashi’s feet. He was just as tall as she remembered, and the bed was nearly too small for him. A smile suddenly stretched across her face. “Remember how every time Honey got a new pair of shoes, he would measure up to her to see if he was still taller than her with them on?”

Wasabi chuckled. “I’d honestly forgotten.” He admitted. “Remember the one day he blew up Baymax’s prototype arm and came out of his office looking like a phantom?”

“I do.” Cass rolled her eyes. “We had to soak his outfit in the sink overnight. The kitchen smelled like burning vinyl for an entire week. But that was nothing compared to the time Honey spilled acid on his laptop and he had to go to the hospital to get it neutralized before he could come home to eat.”

The room exploded into sound. Among the many voices was Honey proclaiming: “It wasn’t my fault! Fred knocked me over!”

It felt good to laugh about it.

Hiro smiled at the memories but did not join in. Instead, he carefully took Tadashi’s hand and pressed his forehead against it. Gogo watched as he closed his eyes and let out a huge breath. She hopped off the bed and went to stand beside him.

“Hey.” She said softly. “He’s going to be okay.”

Hiro nodded, and let go. He took Gogo’s hand instead. “We’ll be okay too.” He told her. They squeezed each other’s hands, and when they let go it wasn’t with the sense of finality. It was only Versailles; a ceasefire or a pause until next time.

* * *

For date night, Hiro and Gogo went laser tagging. They played five straight games of free-for-all, but Gogo could tell it wasn’t helping Hiro out any. Of course not. They fought gangs and villains on a day-to-day basis. Just because it was his fiancée who was shooting a bright purple light at him didn’t mean it would be hard for him to concentrate.

After the fifth game, Gogo started to walk away and Hiro followed her. The park was right outside the family center where the laser tag arena was, so she walked through it. He caught up to her, and they walked beside each other with their hands in their pockets, breathing the night air. The light pollution was bad, so there were no stars in the sky, but when they got to the bridge they could see the lower part of San Fransokyo. Gogo leaned against the iron-wrought railing and watched the water trickle underneath them.

“You okay?” She asked Hiro.

He exhaled and leaned against the bridge with her. “I guess so. It’s still a little weird.”

“I get it.” She said, even though she didn’t really understand.

Hiro was silent. He wrapped his hands around the railing. “Tadashi brought me here. Y’know, that night with the microbots where I made it into college.” He tapped his fingernails on metal.

“Oh.” She said. “Should I have picked a different spot?”

“No.” He says. “I actually used to sneak off here a lot. The memories don’t ruin the place anymore.”

Gogo nodded. They looked out over the bright, blinking lights of the city. Gogo imagined she could see Fred and Wasabi, who had volunteered to do a run of the city tonight, leaping over around. Then, after a long pause, she elbowed him and then swung her body to sit up on the railing. “Your thinking is loud.” She teased. “Woman up and spill.” He chuckled and looked up at her through his bangs. She tapped her foot against the railing as she waited. “Hello?” She asked. “Don’t leave me hanging. What’s going on in there?”

Hiro pushed his hair out of his eyes and looked back out to the city. “How?” He asked. And like a barrier had broken, he continued to speak. “How can this have happened? How come now? How did he not die? How is he the same age? How am I older than my older brother? How could he have missed out on everything? How could he have skipped eleven years?” Hiro huffed and pulled his chin down to his chest. “I’m so… aggravated.”

Gogo pushed herself back onto the ground and leaned closer to him so there were only two inches of space between them. “That’s an interesting word.” She told him.

He took a deep breath and she watched his breath turn into vapor and dissipate. “I used to pray.” He admitted. “Every night. I prayed to whatever gods I could think of. I prayed to Zeus, to Hades, the Christian God, the Islam god, Jesus, even some of the Egyptian and Aztec Gods. Whoever I could think of. I begged them to bring my brother back. I cried, Gogo. It’s so, so unfair that after all of that pain, and everything that happened with Callahan that he’d come back now. I finally got past it. I had you, and the team, and I was okay. And now… I feel like it was all for nothing. I mean, sure I’m happy that I got those chances and experiences and I swear I wouldn’t trade what we have now to have had my brother back then, but it still hurts. I feel like I went through all that pain for nothing.”

Gogo nodded along to his words. “I’m sorry.” She murmured.

Hiro closed his eyes and nodded twice. “I just want to know why. If there’s some reason why now, of all times, he’d come back, I wish I knew what it was.”

“Our lives are just beginning.” Gogo agreed.

“Together.” He echoed.

Gogo sighed. “Poor Cass, too. She just got done raising you.” She smirked and elbowed Hiro.

Hiro, to his credit, laughed. “For real. Now Tadashi will be in the house… alone.”

“Alone?” Gogo raised an eyebrow.

Hiro grinned. “I know we passed ideas around about living with Cass, but I found a place. A friend recommended it to me. I’ve just been waiting to tell you. It’s small, down the street from your favorite gym, about a fifteen-minute commute from Krei-Tech.”

Gogo frowned. “Fifteen minutes from Krei-Tech? Sounds like it’s on the other side of town.”

Hiro shrugged. “It is. It’s closer to the beach, actually.” He elbowed Gogo with a wink. “It was renovated about ten years ago, so it’s got a pretty living room.” Gogo gave him a blank look. He was referring to a conversation they’d had about the importance of a home living room back when they’d first started dating. Gogo had grown up split between her mom and dad, so the bonding time she got with her parents was widely ranged and tainted by the hurt feelings her parents had towards one another. The idea of a family living room wasn’t familiar to her. As for Hiro, he’d had plenty of time with Cass and Tadashi, but they hadn’t had a living room. Therefore, both had declared the living room one of the most useless rooms a household could hold.

What would they even do with a living room? Gogo had a living room in her apartment with Honey, but for the most part, it was there for movie nights and for piling their homework on the center table. It wasn’t like either Gogo or Hiro knew how to be a homemaker.

“Mm.” Gogo sighed. “So, tell me about it.”

“Two bedrooms, and a small office space. A joint kitchen and living room, and two bathrooms. It’s an apartment, and it’s on the sixth floor. We’d have three neighbors on the same floor.” Hiro started to ramble. Gogo stared with a raised eyebrow and a sarcastic smirk frozen on her face.

“I thought it was great.” Hiro finished his speech. “What do you think?”

Gogo shrugged and pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders. “I’d follow you anywhere, nerd.”

Hiro snorted. Gogo set her down on the frigid railing again, and this time Hiro put his hand over hers. They looked over the scenery together and smiled. The thought crossed Gogo’s mind: She could live in this kind of peace for a long, long time.

* * *

Tadashi wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing.

He was standing in his lab at school. There were no traces of the fire. It looked renovated. New panels had been installed in the walls. Climate dials were on the wall. The sections in which students worked were divided by movable glass panels. And Hiro was there. His brother was almost as tall as Gogo. His hair was shorter than Tadashi had ever seen it. He had blue streaks in it, like Gogo’s purple streaks.

As lights flickered off and bodies began to leave for the night, the lab began to cool down. The whirring and clicking that drove everyone bonkers during the day faded, and with this peace came the perfect time to work… unless you were desperate for sleep. Given that most college kids were in fact, desperate, the lab tended to become very empty around 9 o’clock. Tadashi knew this from Gogo, who stayed after when he went home with everyone else to family and brother.

Gogo was rushing around in her messy workspace, throwing this tool into this general spot and reaching for where she knew she’d left the last tool. She sealed some of the electric wires hanging out of the body of her motorbike and reached for a new stick of gum. Tadashi examined her. The sides of her hair had grown out, but the back remained cropped spiky and short.

“Bye Gogo! We’re headed out!” Fred yelled as he, Wasabi, and Honey headed to the door. Fred’s hair was clipped a little shorter, and he was entirely clean-shaven. His hair looked like it’d been washed. He was wearing new shoes. Wasabi and Honey hadn’t changed much.

“Bye Hiro!” Honey waved to his brother. Tadashi glimpsed Hiro’s hand shoot up in a wave before he immediately re-engrossed himself in whatever programming challenge was squaring him down now. He chuckled and rolled his eyes.

“Oh, yeah. Bye Hiro!” Fred corrected himself as he called to their younger friend. Wasabi rolled his eyes and waved at the very last two people in the Nerd Lab. He was spinning his key ring on his fingers. Hiro waved once more but didn’t lift his eyes from where he was scribbling with a furrowed brow. Gogo cracked her gum as the door swung closed. She ran her hand through the static field surrounding the rear tire of her bike and growled. She detached the wheel and tossed it into her rejects pile before she sighed in dejection and pulled on the ends of her hair.

“Have you tried waxing it?” Hiro asked as he walked through the glass barrier. He stood off to the side, far enough to not get punched. He leaned against the toolbox with his hands in his pockets. His hair made him look like a dark-haired Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII.

“Using what? Car wax?” She asked, sounding flat-out exhausted.

He rolled his eyes. “No, candle wax of course.” He replied with clear sarcasm.

Gogo hummed and looked back at the rejected tire she’d thrown out. “Do you think waxing would work?” She asked.

“Do you really think I would have suggested it if I didn’t think it’d work?” They circled the bike together. Hiro pointed at the axles near the footrests. “I’d be willing to bet this is the source, and the electronegativity draws the ions in towards the wheel. If you wax the wheel it should stop the static stick, but you might want to look at this spot here.”

Tadashi smiled in pride. His smart, smart little brother. He was going to change the world one day.

Gogo nodded as she studied her design. “Okay. Thanks for the advice.”

“No problem.” He replied and circled around to examine her spacious table of tools. Gogo began to search through the tools on her desk and used her foot to push a chair underneath her bike. When she turned around with a multi-purpose wrench and a screwdriver in hand, Hiro hadn’t moved. She popped her gum.

“Did you need something?” She asked cautiously.

He shrugged. “Listen, I don’t want a lot of drama, but I’ve kinda been feeling attracted to you for the past few weeks. Low-key, of course.” He held up his hands and gave her a goofy smile. “So, I wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out. Y’know, as friends and such.”

Tadashi was so surprised he stumbled back and through a chair. Hiro? And Gogo?

Gogo cracked her gum. “Like a date.” She stated.

“Like one, yes.” Hiro shrugged. He looked up at her, and then at a point over her right shoulder.

“Is this the sort of thing where if I say no we’re suddenly not friends anymore?” She asked.

“Nah, I’ll just move on and won’t ask anymore,” Hiro said. Gogo bit her cheek.

“Just like that?” Gogo asked.

“Just like that,” Hiro confirmed.

She thought about it, then shrugged. “Sure, I guess. I mean, I’m gonna be honest I never really thought about dating you but yeah, why not? Maybe something will come out of it.” She flipped the screwdriver in her hand. “What-slash-when did you have in mind?”

Hiro made a face. “I don’t want to do the boring dinner thing.”

“The boring dinner thing?” She chuckled. He shrugged, a little sheepish.

“Yeah. So, it’s something a little more creative. Can I come to pick you up on Saturday around 3?” Hiro stuffed his hands into his pockets as he waited.

“Three?” Gogo made a face. Tadashi didn’t blame her. That sounded early to him too.

“Yeah, is that okay?” Hiro asked.

“I mean, yeah, sure. When should I plan on being home?” Hiro smiled widely at her question.

“Whenever you decide you’re sick of me I’ll take you home.” They laughed a little together. Tadashi felt like he needed to sit down.

“Okay, genius.” Gogo chuckled as she pushed the chair around underneath her bike. “This baby isn’t gonna fire up itself. Are you going to stick around to work on your stuff?”

“Nah.” Hiro shook his head. “I promised Aunt Cass I’d come help out in the café tonight. Better get there. See you later Gogo!”

“Bye Hiro.” She watched him pick up his coat and keys and backpack. They shared one last wave before Gogo officially became the last person in the lab. She connected her phone to the lab wall and turned up the volume to some of her favorite beats. Tadashi watched as she set to work on her bike as if nothing had happened.

He felt dizzy, almost nauseous. He swayed, and the scene before him started to dissolve. His vision went black. In the back of his head, he could still hear Gogo working on her beloved bike, and then he became aware of a different sound. A beeping, like a live heart monitor in a hospital. He wrestled his eyes open and saw a deep blue light. His face felt stiff. A face appeared, but it was so blurry he couldn’t make out anything other than a light skin tone. He struggled to focus, and then slipped back into oblivion.

* * *

“Alright, let’s take it for a test whirl,” Hiro announced. “Ready, set, go.”

As a team, Gogo, Hiro, Baymax, Honey-Lemon, Wasabi, and Fred pressed the new lime green button on their jackets. A holographic image of each appeared, slightly fuzzy.

“They’ll be fuzzy as they pick up on you guys,” Hiro announced. His hologram mirrored the movement of his lips. “They’ll record up to sixty minutes of mimicking, and then they’ll mix and match actions when you deploy them. We can use them as decoys and distractions.”

“Can we touch them?” Fred asked, reaching towards his holo.

“I wouldn’t.” Hiro cautioned. “They’re made with the same technology as Wasabi’s lasers.” Fred yanked his hand back.

“Sounds great,” Wasabi said, sizing up his semi-formed counterpart. “You outdid yourself, Hiro.”

“Well, I couldn’t have done it without you, Wasabi,” Hiro replied. He slid his face protector down. “Let’s take them out for a spin. They’ll follow alongside you guys as they’re filming, and mimic where you tend to go and what you tend to do. For example, since Gogo likes to race trains more than Wasabi-“ Everyone gave a light chuckle. “-Her hologram will migrate to the places she likes more than Wasabi’s will after it’s complete.”

“Kay, sounds good,” Gogo said, crouching down and doing some basic stretches on her skates. She started doing some basic motions, like rolling her shoulders and pulling off her skate to throw it. Her counterpart mirrored her.” Gogo smirked. “Sick.” She announced. She clicked the button on the side of her yellow mask to bring the lens down and took off. Within seconds, she was only a speedy yellow blur heading through San Fransokyo.

Wasabi snorted and shook his head. He turned to his hologram. “C’mon buddy, let’s take you for a spin.” He decided, speaking to the holo as if it understood him. He started off at a gentle jogging pace to make sure his counterpart would follow, and then gradually got faster and faster. Soon, he was gone as well.

Honey pulled the strap of her purse tighter along her shoulder and smiled nervously at Hiro as she entered a quick chemical equation. A bubble appeared in her hand. She launched it at the ground and a large orange gelatin-type surface appeared. She jumped on top of it and rocketed away with her hologram in close follow. Hiro turned to Baymax. “C’mon bud.” He said to the red robot. “Let’s go for a fly.” He climbed on and activated the magnetic sensors that kept him in place during flight mode. Baymax lifted off, and they took to the skies.

Hiro loved flying. He loved the evening skies and the golden gate bridge. He loved the air and breathless rush. No roller coaster could compare.

“How’s everyone doing?” He asked through the radio intercom.

“Hiro, we literally left three minutes ago.” Gogo deadpanned through the speaker.

“What can he say, Gogo, he doesn’t like to be away from you!” Honey teased. Hiro rolled his eyes.

“If there’s anyone Hiro should miss being away from, it’s me, because I’m _awesome!”_ Fred cheered. “Breathe fire!” There was a scary sizzling sound along with what sounded to Hiro like a melting lamppost. He winced.

“Uh, Fred, please don’t destroy the city,” Hiro begged.

“Yeah, Fred,” Gogo echoed. “That’s kind of the opposite of the idea.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got this. Superhero master, guys. Oh my gosh, that bird is terrorizing that car! Breathe fire!” Fred screamed.

“Oh my gosh.” Wasabi groaned.

Hiro sighed.

“Come on guys, the bird was about to poop on that car! I hate it when birds do that. I had to defend – oh, hi Charlie.” Fred stopped suddenly.

“Charlie’s there?” Gogo asked.

“What are you doing, Fred?” Charlie’s voice came through the speaker. Ze sounded faint, but still legible.

“I am defending this car from the evil atrocities of bird poop,” Fred defended himself. “Hey, Charlie, if you’re non-binary, that means you can’t be a damsel in distress, right?”

“Nope,” Charlie replied, popping the ‘p’.

“Well, y’know, if you ever decide you do want to be, y’know, a person in distress, I’d totally be the superhero to rescue you!” Fred proclaimed.

“You can’t even take your dishes to the sink by yourself. I’d be dead within the first five minutes of your rescue.” Charlie deadpanned.

Three identical snickers came through the speaker at once. Honey-Lemon sighed. “C’mon guys, be nice to Fred.”

“Yeah!” Fred yelled. “Be nice to Freddie. He’s the coolest superhero!”

Charlie mumbled something nobody caught. Hiro coughed. “Ahem, Baymax has rocket fists, deliberators in his hands, and can scan everyone he comes across for injuries. Depression rates have dropped twenty-seven percent since he started being mass-produced. Also, I built your equipment Fred. Technically I’m the coolest.”

“With _my_ help!” Fred protested.

“No, Fred,” Gogo disagreed. “You showed him your favorite comic book characters and picked your favorite features to include in your suit. He did all the work.”

“Well, you know what? Hiro didn’t even build Baymax, so whatever.” Fred scoffed.

“Technically…” Hiro hissed teasingly through his teeth. “I _did_ build him – I just didn’t _design_ him.” The group laughed as Fred sputtered.

“You know what, you all are mean. I’m going to spend my time with Charlie. You love me, don’t you Charlie?” Fred asked.

“What’s there to love?” Charlie replied.

Hiro couldn’t hear what Fred’s response was over Gogo’s laughter. He only caught the last bit where Fred was saying: “-I’m leaving now, bye.”

“Kiss?” Charlie asked. There was a muffled sound as Fred removed his mask and gave his significant other a quick kiss. After about twenty seconds, they heard him put it back on.

Fred chuckled. “Guys, my hologram is still copying me, but he doesn’t have another Charlie to practice a kiss on, so he’s just smooching air. Loser.”

Hiro bit his lip and decided not to say anything.

He and Baymax glided over the pier with the holographs trailing behind them. Down below, Hiro spotted a yellow blur speeding on top of the water, using the surface tension to her advantage. He smiled and pointed to the top of the golden gate bridge. Baymax followed Hiro’s finger and set him down on top of one of the posts. Down below, Gogo circled around and started pulling off a master plan to propel herself on top of one of the cables that led to the top of the bridge. Hiro watched as she lifted off the water and used the force of the disks spinning to propel herself onto the bridge level. Then, she jumped off one of the posts and started to head to the top.

“Sick,” He said quietly.

“Yes,” Baymax agreed pleasantly.

“Shuddup Hiro,” Gogo growled. She was climbing the cable at an incredible speed. Within seconds, she had leaped off and onto the top of the post beside Hiro and Baymax. Their three holograms mirrored their actions a few meters away.

“So, these holograms…” Gogo gasped out. She began to loosen her heavy, skin-tight armor a little. “How do they mirror us? They’re not looking at us.”

“No.” Hiro agreed. “I set them up to link to your suits. So, when Fred took off his hood a few minutes ago, because the suit wasn’t intact, the hologram couldn’t function properly. It’ll still try to record your motion, but it’ll be off a little. That’s probably why Fred was able to see his hologram trying to smooch air. It lagged when Fred took off his hood and then sped up the motion to catch up once Fred put his mask back on.”

“Sick,” Gogo murmured. She sat down beside Hiro. “You going to be bored now that you’ve finished this?”

“Dunno,” Hiro admitted. “There are still things I want to do that I haven’t figured out yet, but my big thing is figuring out what happened to Tadashi.”

“So… you need to wait for him to wake up?” Gogo asked.

Hiro began to loosen his armor as well. “I mean, I could come up with a hypothesis, but it’d be a lot easier if Tadashi could describe to me what happened. I might have to get started without him though, ‘cause comas can last a long, long time.”

Someone took a deep breath through the speaker.

“What?” Hiro asked. “Is there trouble?” Gogo’s body went rigid.

“No.” Honey-Lemon’s voice quavered. “I just – forgot to tell you something. I was visiting Tadashi last night and he opened his eyes. Only for about ten seconds, and he couldn’t focus on anything. After that, he slipped back into his coma.”

Baymax made a humming sound. “That is good news,” He announced. “It’s only been a week since he reappeared. Many coma victims begin by waking up in small increments before they are able to fully wake and process the world around them.”

“The doctor said there’s still a lot of damage,” Honey said. “But his brain is partially awake. They said hopefully another week or so.”

Hiro’s hands clenched into fists at his side. Gogo tapped his shoulder. “Hey, dork. We’ll get through this, don’t worry.” She removed her helmet. Hiro did the same, and they shared a quick, chaste kiss before quickly replacing their safety gear.

“Hiro,” Baymax said.

Hiro turned to the Medicare robot and saw that Baymax was looking at his and Gogo’s holograms, which had lagged during their kiss and now looked like they were attacking each other’s mouths. Hiro shook his head. “That’s a little freaky.” The holograms sped up to their current motions and Hiro rolled his eyes. “Hey guys, want to meet up at Fred’s and go through some basic routines?”

“Sounds good,” Wasabi responded. “Meet you there?”

“Race you all there,” Gogo challenged, tightening her armor back up. Hiro did the same. She took off, skidding down the cables, and hitting the water going fast enough to bounce a few times before she began to head to shore.

“You have a cool girlfriend, Hiro,” Baymax said serenely. The group burst out laughing.

“Thank you Baymax,” Gogo responded.

Hiro laughed. “Kay, Baymax, let’s go.” He climbed on Baymax’s back and they lifted off and headed in the direction of Fred’s house.

Hiro disconnected everyone’s holograms as they walked in so that they could get set up and the holos could record some of their actual fighting practice instead of them opening closets and pulling out different types of gear. The holo’s remained visible but ran through previously recorded animations over and over. Honey Lemon’s had a wicked light in her eyes as she let loose a bunch of holographic slime everywhere. Fred’s tried to light the chandelier on fire, Wasabi’s acted scared of the furniture, and Hiro’s and Gogo’s sat on the floor replaying their kiss over and over.

“Wow,” Wasabi said with a smirk when he saw them. “Your Holograms are more expressive in _their_ relationship than you are.”

“Ha, ha.” Hiro rolled his eyes. Holo-Fred spotted Hiro and Gogo and started replaying his practice smooch with Charlie.

Hiro’s cell phone rang. He pulled it out and held it to his ear as he pulled some of their basic practice equipment into the backyard from the garage. “Hey, Aunt Cass,” He started.

“Hiro, honey,” Aunt Cass started. “Tadashi, they just said he’s tried to wake up for the third time in the last twenty-four hours. They think it’s time.” Hiro paused in his work.

“Okay,” He said numbly. “I- I’ll be there soon then.”

“Bring the gang. I know you’re with them,” Aunt Cass said. Hiro smiled.

“Sure thing Aunt Cass. Love you.”

“I love you too. See you soon.”

Hiro turned off his phone and turned to face everyone. “Change of plans. The doctors think Tadashi is about to wake up.”

Honey-Lemon stood up quickly. “Let’s go,” She announced, already pulling off her armor. Hiro quickly disabled the holos. They’d just have to work on them later. The team dismantled and regrouped and left Fred’s ten minutes later. Nothing would ever be the same again.

* * *

A doctor led them through the large, expansive hallways in silence. He opened the door to the viewing room. Inside was Cass. Cass had black mascara stains under her eyes and tears in her eyes. Hiro broke off to go and wrap an arm around his aunt as Gogo and the rest of the team looked down through the one-way glass into the room below.

Tadashi was awake and sitting propped up on several pillows. A group of five doctors was in the room with white lab coats and clipboards. Tadashi’s head and several parts of his arms had been damaged, and he looked dazed as he talked. Gogo sucked in a breath and turned to look where Hiro was standing out of sight of the view below. She gestured him forward.

Hiro took a few steps toward the glass and his expression became glass-like. Wasabi put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay.” He murmured. “He’s okay.”

Hiro nodded silently, and they broke off into silence as they watched a dead man come back to life once more.


	4. The Revelation Presentation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is both a lot longer and a lot shorter than I remember it.

After twenty minutes, the doctors left the room. Gogo listened to them romp up the stairs, and then watched as they opened the dividing door to the staircase. A tall black with thinning black hair smiled at them. "Friends and family?" He guessed, "Feel free to head down."

"Thank you," Wasabi murmured. He began to guide the group towards the door as all the other doctors slipped inside. Cass and Honey went down first, followed by Hiro, Gogo, Fred and Wasabi. One of the doctors followed them down to open the secure door with his key card.

As the door swung open, Tadashi looked up. When Cass walked in, his expression fell slack. "Aunt Cass?" He asked. The rest of the group followed. Tadashi's mouth fell open. He mouthed each of their names as he saw them. When he saw Hiro, his jaw fell open, and he could do nothing but stare. Finally, he cleared his throat and said: "The doctors said it's been a while, but I didn't expect this. How long was I asleep?" He examined his bandages. "A lot of this still looks new."

"A week," Gogo muttered.

"A week?" Tadashi wondered. The family gathered around his bed. Tadashi reached up and caught a lock of Honey's short hair as she came to stand beside him. "Your hair is short…" He muttered. He turned to look at Cass. "You look…" He trailed off.

"Tadashi." Gogo started. "You were asleep for a week, but you were dead for eleven years. You were incinerated in the fire, but last week you materialized in the middle of the school labs. As far as the doctors can tell, you haven't even aged."

Tadashi stared. "Eleven years?" He asked. He looked at Hiro. "Oh my gosh. You're twenty-five?"

Hiro nodded slowly. Tadashi scanned his brother. "You have purple in your hair." He muttered. He looked confused, as if remembering something else. Gogo assumed he was having trouble putting the fourteen-year-old and the twenty-five-year-old Hiro together. "Is that a tattoo?" Tadashi asked.

Hiro pulled the sleeve of his shirt down a little more with a casual glance at Gogo. "Yeah." He admitted. "I got it last year."

Tadashi ripped his eyes around from Hiro to put a hand on Cass's cheek. He stared at her white wisps and ran his thumb over her smile wrinkles. "Cass." He muttered.

Cass laughed. "I got old." She told him. "Happens to everyone except you, apparently." She elbowed him a little.

Tadashi's head whipped a 180 to stare at Honey. "You have a second piercing." He told her. Honey lifted her hand to feel her ear with a nod. Her cheeks looked a little pink.

Tadashi looked back at Fred. "Oh my gosh." He sighed. Your clothes are actually clean."

"Charlie does his laundry now." Wasabi smiled.

"Charlie?" Tadashi asked.

"Fred's significant other," Gogo supplied. "Ze's non-binary and a neat-freak."

Tadashi sat back. "Oh my gosh," He said. "Oh my gosh." His heart monitor was going crazy. Cass set a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay," She told him. "It's disorientating for us too."

Tadashi shook his head. "Wasabi, you put on muscle."

Wasabi shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Yeah… about that." He glanced at Hiro. Hiro made a slashing motion at his throat. "Um, actually, never mind," Wasabi amended.

Tadashi stared at Gogo. "Did you…" He trailed off. "Did you get shorter?" The group burst into laughter.

Gogo glared. "I don't care if you are in a hospital bed, I will still judo flip you over my shoulder."

Tadashi held up his hands. Hiro chuckled and elbowed Gogo. "You got shorter?" He asked.

"Shut up Hiro." She rolled her eyes.

Tadashi stared at them for a few seconds. Then his eyes flitted over the group. "Oh my gosh." He whispered. He looked down at himself. "How… old are you guys?"

Fred pushed his hands into his pockets. "I'm thirty-one, Wasabi is thirty-three, Honey is thirty-one, Gogo is thirty, I dunno how old Cass is, and Hiro is twenty-five. It's been eleven years."

"Oh." Tadashi sighed. "Did you… did you guys ever finish your term projects?"

The room burst into laughter. "Oh, that was ages ago," Gogo said. "I don't even remember what mine was."

Tadashi looked shaken. "Your bike?"

"Oh!" Gogo exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "Yeah, I sold it to Krei Tech three years after your death. I was twenty-two. It's still being used for speed racing around the world."

"Yeah, and I think Hiro helped me modify my lasers to improve precision surgery." Wasabi rubbed the back of his head.

Tadashi looked like he might be sick. Hiro cleared his throat. "Tadashi, about Baymax…" He trailed off.

"He couldn't be lost in the fire," Tadashi said. "I brought him home. Did you guys take out my room?" He asked.

"No," Hiro said. "But Baymax... I made some modifications, and he's been being mass-produced the last few years. Look." He pointed to a corner of the room where a mint-green Baymax charger was sitting.

Tadashi strained his neck to see. "Modifications?" He asked.

"Baymax has two chips now," Hiro said. "One is a patient database for patients to fill their Baymaxes with character. You can teach them fist bumps and stuff. And the chip you made – the medicare matrix – I put it on a satellite which every Baymax has access to. They can add information and take it from the satellite as they need it." He shifted his weight. "It's just… Baymax scanned everyone he knew, so it didn't make sense for all Baymaxes to be scanning every single person they came across and overloading their information reserves with things they didn't need. Now they're more patient specialized."

Tadashi continued to crane his neck to see the mint Baymax. "Ow!" He called. There was a whirring sound, and the Baymax inflated. It was a lighter shade of mint than its charger and much shorter than the Baymax Tadashi had created.

"Hello." The robot said, echoing a Latin accent. "I am Baymax, your hospital-brand health companion. I was alerted to the need for medical assistance when you said 'ow'. Can I perform a patient scan, or call a doctor?"

"Scan me," Tadashi commanded in a gravely tone.

"Scan complete. Tadashi Hamada, age twenty-one. You have sustained severe burns and several abrasions. Your emotions are fluctuating, and you appear to be angry." Baymax echoed. "Burn wounds have already been treated. What would you like me to do about your anger levels?"

Tadashi leaned back into his pillows. "You can't fix this hurt, buddy." He muttered dejectedly. "I'm satisfied with my care." Silence reigned over the room.

"I'm sorry, Tadashi," Hiro said. "It's not fair you missed it."

Tadashi let out a long breath and began to cry. "It's fine." He gasped through tears. "I just want to be alone right now." The group began to edge to the door as one.

"Aunt Cass," Tadashi called. "Was my phone disconnected?"

Cass nodded. "It was hun. But I'll work something out if you like."

"I'm okay." Tadashi swallowed. "I just wanted to catch up."

Hiro hesitated on his way out the door. He turned around and opened his mouth, then closed it again. Gogo put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on Nerd. He needs to process all of this." Hiro nodded. Just before they walked out of sight, she slipped her hand down and put an arm around his side. They missed the look of confusion Tadashi made. He wasn't sure, but he could have sworn he saw Gogo pull Hiro a few inches closer to her.

Cass was the last person to leave the room. She walked over, slung her arms carefully around Tadashi's neck, and whispered: "Last hug."

For Cass, it had been eleven years. For Tadashi, it had been only an hour.

* * *

The next day, the gang returned with Charlie in tow. Tadashi had his old laptop in his room and was scrolling through news pages. When he saw everyone coming into his room, he clicked something on the laptop and threaded his fingers together.

"Hiro." He said right off the bat. "Do you have something you forgot to tell me yesterday?"

Hiro shrank. He glanced at Gogo, and then back at Tadashi. "Well, it's hard to fill you in on eleven years in eleven minutes. What exactly are you upset about?"

"Callahan." Tadashi turned the laptop around. "He lived, became a villain with _your_ microbots, and then was defeated by a gang of very-familiar people." On the screen was a photo of their team that had been taken a few years ago. Hiro nodded.

"Yeah. Callahan was put in jail. And I invented those suits to battle against him. We, uh, still go out from time to time," Hiro said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"And I suppose you get supervillains often?" Tadashi asked sarcastically.

"Gangs, mostly," Wasabi said.

Tadashi stared at the screen quietly. "What happened to your microbots?"

"Discontinued for safety reasons. I moved on." Hiro answered.

"He's been busy anyway." Honey smiled. She elbowed Hiro and moved to go stand beside Tadashi. She put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Busy?" Tadashi asked.

"Yeah," Hiro said. "When you're released from the hospital, we'll have to take you to the school. After the fire… we upgraded it a lot."

"Wow," Tadashi said. "I've been looking through the web. It looks like you've done lots of cool stuff. I wish I hadn't missed it."

Hiro sat down on the edge of Tadashi's bed. "What do you remember?" He asked.

Tadashi shook his head. "Nothing. I barely even remember the fire."

"Can you… tell me about it?" Hiro asked.

"Hiro, I swear I don't know anything." Tadashi gripped the edge of the hospital bed tightly. "I ran back inside. I can't remember much. I made it to the lab. I think I saw Professor Callahan. He had this black egg thing go up around him. I don't know if he saw me though." Tadashi concentrated. "My ears popped. And there was a lot of pressure on my body. It felt like it was coming from all sides and angles. And then I hit the lab floor and passed out."

Hiro frowned. "Did you feel any pins and needles, or smell anything?"

Tadashi shook his head no. "I didn't feel anything other than the pressure, but I did smell zinc in the air."

"Zinc?" Hiro raised an eyebrow. "Did you see any particles in the air when you appeared in the lab?"

"No. Now listen," Tadashi said loudly. "I have no idea. As far as I know, I blinked and lost entire years. I'm exactly the same as I was before and all of you have already moved on. Just… slow down!" He ran his hands through his hair. "My aunt has grey hair, my brother dyes his purple and has a tattoo, Honey cut all her hair off and… you guys aren't even in college anymore, are you? Except for Hiro, unless he graduated early?" Tadashi looked up at Hiro.

"Yeah, bro. I've been graduated for about six years now." Hiro muttered. He looked disappointed. Gogo knew he wanted to get to work on this problem as soon as he could, but Tadashi was obviously still reeling.

Tadashi balled his fists up in the sheets. "I blinked, and my brother graduated." He said through gritted teeth. "You were fourteen yesterday, man. What else have I missed? Are you guys married? Do you have kids? Who's this over here?" He pointed past everyone to Charlie, who had been doing zer best to be quiet.

"That's Charlie." Fred nodded with a sappy smile. "They're the bomb, man. Like, the bomb-dot-com." He mimicked an explosion sound as he presented Charlie, who was blushing softy.

"So… Fred's girlfriend?" Tadashi guessed.

"Non-binary." Everyone corrected him at the same time. They laughed and exchanged high-fives. Tadashi winced and nodded. He'd obviously forgotten that they'd told him yesterday.

"Are any of you married?" Tadashi asked. His eyes skimmed over everyone's hands. Gogo shoved her fists into her pockets and bit her cheek.

"Not yet." Wasabi shook his head. His eyes flickered back and forth between Hiro and Gogo. Hiro sighed and shuffled closer to his brother's bed.

"Listen, Tadashi…" Hiro swallowed. "I get that it's a lot to take in, but-"

"What degree did you graduate with?" Tadashi interrupted him. He stared intently into his brother's eyes.

Gogo snorted. "Are we really going to start this round of jeopardy with that question?" She drawled as she dug in her pocket for a stick of bubble gum. She hadn't been chewing it as much since she started dating Hiro, but she still liked it a lot. It was a social habit.

Hiro chuckled and met her eyes for a few seconds before he looked back at Tadashi. "Yeah, man. Lots has changed. It'll take more than an hour to catch you up. What you really need to work on is getting better, so you can come out and experience it all for yourself. We're going to show you Fred's mansion and the new labs that you can talk to, and you'll get to know Charlie and-" Hiro choked up for a second. "Things are going to be okay." He coughed a little and looked away.

Gogo leaned over the hospital bed. "Hey, dork, it'll be okay, alright? Just chill out."

Hiro nodded and took a few deep breaths, still facing away from the group. Charlie spoke up from the back of the room. "Hiro, Gogo, the longer you wait the worse it'll be. He's not going to catch on randomly."

Gogo winced and rotated her ring around her finger. She glanced at Hiro and Hiro glanced at Gogo. Tadashi straightened up a little. "Are you two… dating?" He asked, looking a little grossed out.

Gogo shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Sort of…" She bit her lip and trailed off, looking at Hiro.

Hiro put his hands on the edge of the hospital bed and curled his knuckles around the edge of it. "Tadashi, Gogo and I have dated for a few years now, ever since I was sixteen. On the day you came back, I had asked her to be my wife." He looked up at Gogo, and then his eyes shot to the floor. "We're engaged. We haven't set a date or anything yet, though."

"She's like, five years older than you!" Tadashi protested. He threaded his fingers through his hair in obvious distress.

"At least they're telling you right off the bat." Fred scoffed. "They'd already passed their first anniversary before we figured it out." The team all gave matching groans as Gogo rolled her eyes and stuffed her hands back into her pockets.

"A year?" Tadashi asked.

"Yeah." Hiro nodded. "We didn't want a lot of-"

"Drama," Tadashi finished in a quiet tone. He slumped back and pulled his laptop closer to him. "So you got engaged, formed a team of superheroes, revamped the college, produced Baymax, and what else?"

"Everything." Gogo scoffed.

"Everything and more," Hiro confirmed. "And starting up next, where did you go for eleven years? It must have been an instantaneous thing. I'm thinking that-"

"Hiro!" Tadashi snapped. "I really need you to shut up!"

Everyone stared. Tadashi pressed his hands to his forehead. He was taking deep breaths, but his face was still purple. "I can't – I just can't…"

Honey Lemon took Tadashi's forearm. "Listen, we know it's a lot, but you need to calm down. We'll figure this out, one step at a time."

"Maybe we should just give him time with his family," Charlie piped up from the back of the room. "I know we all only just got here, but we're probably overwhelming him."

"That's probably a good idea," Cass said softly. "Can you all please wait outside a little while longer?"

The group began to hesitantly back away towards the doors. Tadashi didn't argue – a mark of how stressed out he was – and so they all began to disappear outside. Gogo set a hand on Hiro's shoulder. "I might dash over to the station and visit later. Want me to swing back and wait for you?"

"No thank you," Hiro whispered. "I'll get Aunt Cass home afterward and see you tomorrow."

"Okay," she agreed. He took her hand off his shoulder and squeezed it before turning to look back at Tadashi. Gogo left, shutting the door behind her, and wandered up the stairs to the viewing room. Honey Lemon was standing with her hands braced on the glass and with Wasabi beside her, but Charlie and Fred were sitting away from the glass, cuddled together and whispering in each other's ears. Gogo snapped her gum – old habits die hard – and everyone jumped. "I'm heading to the station. Can you guys hold things down without me?"

"Is there an emergency?" Wasabi asked. "Are you being called in for an emergency shift?"

"No," Gogo shook her head. "I'm just going in to grab something. Call me if you need anything."

Her bike was outside, parked beside Hiro's. It lit up as she neared it with a loud whirring sound and neon yellow lights began to run around the tires, like it was already bracing itself for the speed she wanted to go. She climbed in and pulled on her helmet, taking the extra two seconds to comply with the fastener warning before pulling her gloves on and pulling out of the lot.

The police station was currently full – another bot fight breakup, by the looks of it. She slipped past the front desk, flashing a security clearance at the officer behind the desk as she did, and then found her way to her cubical in the back.

Old polaroid photos hung on one wall in a dizzying array. Some were framed memories of important events – her graduation, Hiro's graduation, Krei Tech Reopening, among others. But the vast majority were blurred photos of grey and blue, snaps of the cityscape, various parks and trees, and occasional blurs of Hiro himself. Gogo let a hand rest among the mess as she leaned over her desk and her left index finger covered up a bit of a blue hoodie sleeve with a pale hand peeking out to grip a steering wheel. She flipped through the mess on her desk and found what she was looking for underneath a pile of old files that had never quite made it into her file folder. It was an old newspaper clipping of the fire at Sanfransokyo Institute. She'd saved the story and still had it after all these years.

She sat down at her computer and, after firing up her computer and entering her password, began searching through the database. With a few select keywords, the file on the fire was open to her eyes.

She skimmed. It was pretty sparse pickings. An accidental fire that had been started as a result of a student not properly closing their experiment for the night. Nothing missing and everything destroyed although a bullet point had been added later that "Hamada Microbots were stolen on this night – see 3027 Krei Tech case." There were additional resources pointing her to Professor Callahan and Project Silent Sparrow, but that was it.

Professor Callahan. Tadashi said that he had seen him. Had Callahan seen Tadashi?

With a few clicks, a legal database was bearing her the details of "State vs Robert Callahan." She squinted through the readings. Pursed her lips at the questions.

_"Sir, can you detail what happened the night of the fire?"_

_"I used XXXX XXXXXX's project to create a spark in one of the empty labs and began telling people to get out as the fire grew out of control. No one was meant to die. I made sure no one else was inside."_

There was no direct mention of Tadashi anywhere in his statement, but the prosecutor later said: "And despite Mr. Callahan's claims of not meaning any harm, the damages cost the city thousands, dozen's of student's careers and educations were harmed and one man's life halted forever."

Gogo leaned back in her chair and twisted her new ring around her finger, watching the silver glint off it. The last time she'd seen Callahan was the day she'd stood in court and watched them lead him away to prison alongside the rest of the team. Hiro had testified that day, but not anyone else because their testimonies were not directly applicable. She hadn't wanted to see Callahan since then but now, with everything that had happened… her fingers itched.

"Oh, what's the resident trouble-maker up to?" A voice came from behind.

Gogo turned and raised her eyebrow at her supervisor, Mindy, who had appeared behind her. Mindy was a rough-n-tough blonde with dozens of black studded piercings down her ear, which she somehow made look professional with her uniform and the blue tattoos curling around her wrists. Gogo jerked her finger back towards her computer. "Callahan. He's still locked up, isn't he?"

"I guess he is if that's what the file says," Mindy affirmed. "Why?"

"I might go pay him a visit." Gogo stood up, kicked her chair back into the desk, and pulled the plug on her system. It was her way of securing her workspace – you'd be surprised how many people forgot to check the wall dock.

Mindy squinted at Gogo's hand. "You're sporting some new hardware, I see."

Gogo let a small smile escape her. "Yeah. My boyfriend proposed to me last week."

"Oh," Mindy deflated. "Well, okay. I didn't know you were dating anyone. Well, congrats."

Gogo raised an eyebrow. "You seem thrilled."

"Well, to be honest I've been holding out to see if you were gay," Mindy admitted. "But that's okay. I bet he's a great guy. Lucky guy."

"Oh," Gogo's cheeks flared up. "Uh, yeah, I'm not. Sorry."

"Oh well," Mindy shrugged. "Well, if I remember correctly, visiting hours at the prison end at seven every day. It's 5:35. If you hurry, you can have the last hour to say what you have to say." She paused. "Callahan was the microbot guy, right?"

"He was," Gogo nodded. "He started the fire at San Fransokyo back when I was in college."

"Why talk to him now?" Mindy asked. "After all these years."

"Well, my fiancé's brother was murdered in that fire, except they recovered him last week."

Mindy blinked. "A man murdered eleven years ago was found?" she asked. "That was the man on fire in the labs?"

"Tadashi Hamada," Gogo affirmed.

"Hamada?" Mindy repeated with her shoulders slumping even further. "You're getting married to Hiro Hamada?"

"We're low-key about it," Gogo admitted. "But we've been together for six years."

"Okay," Mindy sighed. "Well, good luck with Callahan. Hope all is well. That's just… insane." She turned and walked away with her hands stuffed into her pockets, shaking her heads. The blue of her tattoos blended into her sleeves.

Gogo slipped out through a side door. She found some teenage boys who had just been discharged examining her bike in awe, but she budged them aside and ignored their shock that such a short and petite woman could own such a bike. They didn't look like they'd been planning on stealing it and even if they had been trying, the bike couldn't be ridden without Gogo's watch calibrating to it. A safety feature she'd designed herself.

The prison was on the outskirts of the city – a concrete structure with heavy walls that held more gadgets and gizmos than the walls of the college now did. She had to park outside and go through dozens of security clearances in order to reach inside, including removing all her gizmos and showing her various ID's. Finally, though, she reached the directory desk.

"Visiting hours only last another hour," the receptionist told her. "Who are you here to see?"

"Robert Callahan," Gogo replied. The receptionist took her ID again, examined it with a furrowed brow, and then nodded and let her through without much more consequence.

She was led to a room that was split in two with cubicles in which you could sit and talk with the person on the other side through a bright orange telephone that still clicked into the wall and looked like a banana. Gogo picked it up and found it buttonless – thank goodness, because she didn't know if she remembered how to dial on these prehistoric devices.

It took some time, which she passed by sliding her ring up and down her finger nervously, spinning it on the desk, and drumming her fingers anxiously. She was glad Hiro had been so smart in picking out a ring that didn't have a protruding diamond. It made it much more balanced and lightweight. After about fifteen minutes, she saw the door open and Professor Callahan emerged with two guards leading him to her. She scooped her ring back up and replaced it on her finger.

His eyes skimmed down the row of other people conversing – there weren't many – and landed on her, sitting with one leg against the wall though she began to straighten up as he approached. She felt like she had her first day in his class, switching from a half-asleep freshman to an attentive student. He paused, standing on the other side, and then took a seat with care. They sat, staring at each other, and Gogo took him in.

Orange wasn't his color. He looked very pale and much, much older. None of the passion of his youth was evident in his frame now.

She picked up the phone.

Callahan hesitated before he picked up his own receiver. They both held the banana-phones up to their ears and said nothing while Gogo tried to sort out her thoughts. Finally, Callahan cleared his throat.

"Ms. Tanaka. I must say, I never expected to see you again."

"Mr. Callahan," she mumbled. "How are you?"

"Well," He replied. "Did you, ah, just come to see your old professor, or…"

"No," Gogo shook her head. "I… there's been a development and… so I came." She shifted a little in her seat and held the phone to her ear with her chin and shoulder so her hands were free to fidget. "I… they found… well, actually, I should ask first, not tell you." She chuckled to herself. The little law information she remembered was fleeing from her. "What do you remember from the night of the fire?"

"I believe my statement is on file," Callahan replied in a flat tone.

"It is," Gogo confirmed. "But it doesn't have the information I need."

Callahan sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I… used the lab on the west side because it was for the younger students and they all go home early. It's near the entrance. I helped get people out, pretended I was running in for more people, and found the neurotransmitter lying on Tadashi's office table where Hiro had left it. They got me out and I played low until Hiro stumbled on me weeks later."

Gogo had to resist the urge to hiss a little every time Callahan mentioned Hiro. She knew how much he was hurting right now, and it was all because of this man across from her. She swallowed. "What about Tadashi?" she asked.

Callahan uncovered his eyes and looked at her. "Pardon?" he asked.

"Tadashi?" Gogo repeated, keeping her tone light. "He went in after you. His lab wasn't far from the entrance Hiro saw him go in. Did you see him?"

"Listen, Leiko," Callahan sighed. "There wasn't a lot I could do. The fire was getting to other projects… Ms. Miyazaki's projects were dangerous enough without the-"

"Did you see him?" Gogo interrupted.

Robert Callahan sighed. They locked gazes and Gogo felt like her world was aligning onto one thread. "You did," she said in a flat tone.

"I heard him call," Robert affirmed. "He had stumbled upon me. The microbots were already coming up around me and I heard him call my name and thought I saw him in the shadows. But then there was the explosion. I looked around in the wreckage – my plan was to pull him out of the wreckage if he was there – but I couldn't find a body anywhere. I thought I had imagined it until I saw the obituary for us both in the paper."

Gogo stared and stared until she realized her breathing was becoming heavy. She set down the receiver for the banana phone onto the table and ran a hand through her hair as she tried to catch her breath again. Several seconds passed before Callahan waved on the other side of the glass and Gogo picked up the phone again.

"Ms. Tanaka, I never meant for him to die. I specifically waited until he and Hiro had left because I knew he'd want to help. He always wanted to help everyone, and-"

"Tadashi is alive," Gogo cut Callahan off. He fell silent immediately and she watched the phone slip a few inches away from his ear. His eyes grew wide. "They found him in a lab last week. He… he's twenty-one still and has fresh burns from the fire. Hasn't aged a day."

"Time travel?" Callahan mumbled. "It can't be too far-fetched… once we developed teleportation… time travel is only a step ahead."

"Tadashi mentioned he'd seen you," Gogo murmured. "So I came to ask before, well, before Hiro could." She twisted her ring around on her finger. It was quickly becoming a new nervous habit. "Where was he, in the lab?"

"Just in the lab," Callahan recalled. "I left Tadashi's office door open, so I could see out into the lab. The lab was full of fire, though. I think he had just run through your station when the microbots protected me from the explosion."

"Which direction did the explosion happen from?" Gogo asked.

Callahan held his hands up while balancing the receiver by his ear to remind himself of his lefts and rights. "The, uh, the north side. To my right when I was facing him. Closer to the outside wall."

"Honey's lab," Gogo realized. "The flames reached Honey's lab and… it blew up."

"That would be the likely explanation," Callahan agreed. "Well, ask Ms. Miyazaki and see if she can tell you what she had on hand that day, though I doubt it."

"I doubt it too," Gogo sighed. "But it does give us a place to start. She reached into her pocket for another piece of gum. "Well, thank you, Professor. That… does help us."

"Not at all, Ms. Tanaka," Callahan nodded. Then, before she could bid him farewell, he gestured at her hands. "Is it Ms. Tanaka still? Or have you changed it?"

"Not yet," Gogo shook her head. "But, uh, soon it'll be Hamada, I guess."

"Hamada?" Callahan's eyebrows shot up. "Well, congratulations. And good luck with Tadashi. Send him my regrets, will you?"

Behind Callahan, a guard approached and said something, gesturing through the window. Callahan nodded. "Well, I have to go now. Good luck getting home."

Gogo nodded, waited for Callahan to be led away, and sat for a few minutes longer. Down the way were couples on either sides of the glass, holding their palms up and whispering softly. There was what looked like a mother bringing her daughter some flowers and a few other people chatting. However, the guards were urging all of them to finish up as well. Visiting hours were over.

She texted Cass to ask if Hiro had made it home and she affirmed that everyone had and Hiro had turned in early. Gogo debated her options, then headed back to the hospital.

She was able to get back in with minor problems. Honey Lemon was still in the room with him when Gogo arrived, but she appeared to be leaving. Gogo waited until Honey had reappeared at the top of the stairs. "Hey," she called.

The stress lines around Honey's eyes made her face look tight. "Hey," she responded softly.

"Callahan thinks that Tadashi may have been near your lab when the fire triggered the explosion," Gogo said. "Hiro will probably be getting into contact with you to ask you questions."

"You went to talk to Callahan?" Honey asked.

"Just barely," Gogo nodded. "I'm going to go down and sit with Tadashi a bit longer, then I'll leave."

Honey nodded and held the door open for Gogo to go down. "He's… quiet," she offered. "Hiro and Cass managed to straighten a few things out. He doesn't want to talk about the fire. Mostly asks about Hiro."

"Well, hopefully, he'll put up with me," Gogo sighed. She slipped inside. "Goodnight, Honey."

Gogo knocked before coming in. Tadashi didn't call to tell her she could come in, so she just slipped in. He was staring blankly at the wall as she found a stool and took a seat. Then she waited for some sort of response. There wasn't any, so she pushed his toes lightly through the covers. Tadashi flinched back. "What?" he complained.

"Were you by Honey's lab?" Gogo asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Tadashi hissed. He yanked the covers up as far as he could and closed his eyes.

"Okay, that's fine, but-"

"I don't want to talk!"

Gogo snapped her lips together. She propped her feet up on the hospital bed and pulled a stick of gum out of her pocket. Tadashi peeked out underneath one lid as she popped it into her mouth. She found a second and offered it to him wordlessly. After a long pause, he reached out and accepted it.

Tadashi sat up in bed to chew his gum. He pulled his feet up as much as the burns would allow him in his quest to avoid her eyes and folded his hands together. Gogo pulled out her phone. Hiro had sent her a message at some point. "Did you make it home?"

"Reply to my message," Gogo muttered. Tadashi looked up, confused.

"Would you like to reply to Hiro Hamada or Cass Hamada?" Her phone asked.

"Hiro Hamada."

Tadashi craned his neck to see her phone and Gogo let him. It had been several years – all the technology was new to him. And her phone was a special level of special. If it fell too fast, a bubble would form around it to keep it from breaking. It sensed fingerprints and wouldn't let other people access things – even with the password. Hiro had worked on it.

"Hiro Hamada said 'Did you make it home?' What should I send him?"

"Taking a detour. I'll let you know when I get home. Rest easy."

"I sent that. Let me know if you need anything else."

Tadashi cleared his throat. "The assistant voice is less annoying now."

"Well, mine's special. But yeah, the voice over technology is better. You don't have to phrase the command the same way all the time."

"I like how his name in your phone is the same. Not anything… weird."

Gogo's screen lit up briefly with an affirming message from Hiro and then the light died down again. "We've never really been… that couple. We're close but reasonable."

"I like that."

Gogo took her feet off the bed and rolled forward. Instead, she put her elbows on the table. "It's… weird. Not him and I but him and I and you. I always wondered what you'd think about us."

"I don't like it."

"I don't expect you to."

Tadashi's hands clenched into fists. "No, Gogo, you don't get it. I hate it."

"That's okay."

"No, it's not!" Tadashi exploded. "He's still fourteen years old and he's getting married and I hate it!"

Gogo stayed silent. Tadashi needed silence. Not that he was providing much.

"What is wrong with the world? What is wrong with him? What's wrong with you? You barely know him! You met two months ago and the most interaction you've had was when he and Fred had a pizza-eating competition and you took Fred's side! I just don't understand… what's wrong with me?"

He finally went quiet. Gogo didn't take any of the words to heart. He was hurt – that was fine. He deserved to be hurt. They all did.

A growing tickle at the back of her throat urged her to speak. It gradually grew until it was a rash that she had to clear her throat around in order to speak. "He put off proposing because he wanted you to be there, I think."

Tadashi grumbled. It was clear the sentiment didn't help.

"There were a lot of things he just… didn't want to do. He didn't want to finish school. He didn't want to move out. Didn't want to do anything because he felt like he was moving on without you. And he wasn't sure how to cope with that. Balance what was happening with what had happened and what was going to happen. It was hard."

This, she could tell, helped. Tadashi swallowed and let the tension fade out of his shoulders. She popped a bubble and finished her speech. "So I get it. I get not being able to compute what just happened. Because… we all struggled with that for a long, long time."

Tadashi straightened his legs out again and relaxed into his mattress, nodding. "Yeah. Yeah. I just-" he wiped his eyes. "Thank you, Gogo."

She nodded. "No problem."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are specific scenes(not arcs) you'd like to see with any of the characters, you can pm me suggestions either through my tumblr or through A03 Comment.


	5. The Inferno Concerto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tadashi can't adjust.

**Try and leave a review if you can. I'm wondering what people's thoughts are.**

* * *

"What kind of wedding do you want?" Hiro asked as he pulled his helmet off his head and dropped it on the back of her bike. Gogo snapped her gum and then removed her own helmet while also snapping the kickstand down and turning the key in the ignition.

"This the place?"

"It is. Did you hear me?"

"I did. Sorry – just give me a moment to think." She got off but then leaned against the bike's handlebars for a few more seconds while she thought. Partly about the building in front of her – white with black-tinted windows and the odd iron balcony here and there – and partly about her upcoming wedding. "Wouldn't it be funny if we just stretched things out? It'd drive Wasabi up the wall if we just let it hang for another year or so."

"It would," Hiro agreed. He locked his fingers together and then rotated his thumbs around each other. "But, uh, this isn't really something I want to stretch out. You know?"

"Well, what were you thinking?" Gogo asked. "Elope tonight?"

"No." He shook his head. "But I don't necessarily want to let it go and go. This is… important to me."

The corner of Gogo's mouth crooked up. "It's an important subject."

"Absolutely."

She sighed and scuffed her foot against the concrete. Something was nagging at her – like her brain was trying to shoo a fly away when nothing was in sight. She wasn't sure what it was.

"We should just start thinking," Hiro said. He spread an arm towards the door. "Want to start heading up?"

"After you, nerd."

The first thing Gogo noticed about the place was that it did not smell like a drugs bust waiting to happen. That was good. Hiro opened the door and they were both hit with enough fresh linen air freshener to cause a lung issue, but hopefully the neighbors would be decent and the place wasn't a police hotspot. It was clean too. She inspected the baseboards as she passed, but none were moldy, all were firmly attached, and minimal dust. Great.

They took the elevators up. Pretty minimalistic – only the four metal walls and ten golden buttons. Hiro hit button number six. They stepped out onto a rug that squished down under her feet and in front of a mirror with lights around it. Hiro directed her to the left and towards a stained door with a silver knob. "Four rooms per floor," he said. "We're looking at 6C." He fished a key fob out of his pocket and ran it past the reader on the door. It clicked open and he gave it an extra push to help it along.

There was a small entrance that led into a living room. The living room sat lower than the kitchen and the hall leading into another hallway and was lined with floor-to-ceiling windows. Gogo wandered in and peered down at the street below while Hiro locked the door behind them and hung his coat on a peg beside the door. Time to start investigating. She pulled out her phone. "Full bars," she called.

"We're fifteen minutes from Krei Tech," Hiro reminded her. "I'd sue if our service was bad."

"Ah. That's a case you'd definitely lose."

Gogo wandered into the kitchen, opened up the cabinet under the sink, and began running her fingers along the crevices. "No mold."

"It's scary that you know to check for that."

"It's a good indicator of if the sink pipe has burst before." Gogo sat back up and began skimming the outlets. "Do you know if we have a separate fuse box?"

"We do. Depending on what happens, we're responsible for maintenance."

"We need to get it checked over before we sign anything." Gogo's next move was to climb atop the counter and begin examining the in-ceiling lighting. "There are bugs here, but doesn't look too bad."

Hiro had pulled out his phone and begun searching for the information he'd gathered. "There's no noise restriction, but things usually get quiet after eight or nine anyways. You'll hear the street at night no matter what. Pest control is paid for once every year but they'll skip you if you're not ready and won't come back. You have to get approval to make permanent changes and-"

"Hiro?" Gogo pointed at the sink. "I want you to stand here with the water on while I find a toilet and flush it. Tell me if the water slows down."

"Got it." Hiro turned both handles and continued skimming his information while Gogo wandered down the hallway. Bedroom one was tiny – about the size of the office next door. Bedroom two, the master, was a moderate size. Everything was clean. That was nice.

Gogo located a toilet and pressed down on the handle. From the kitchen, Hiro called back: "All good!" and flipped the water off. Gogo continued wandering. She tested the locks, turned the shower to hot to see how long it would take and how hot it would get, and then wandered around looking for mold spores on the carpet with a black light on her phone. Finally, she returned to the kitchen.

"Has it passed Gogo's home tests?"

"It has." She exhaled and looked around, finally letting herself see the place as it was. "And it's nice. Not dungy or anything. Good pick, Hiro."

"We have to get our own furniture and stuff. But I figured that'd be good because then if we wanted more room for inventing or whatever… we would have it."

"An in-home lab sounds much more useful than a living room." Gogo smirked. "Unless you want the entertainment space?"

"I wouldn't mind having Wasabi, Honey, and the others over. And you know Cass will probably drop in from time to time."

"I'm hearing that you want the entertainment space." Gogo crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

Hiro shrugged. "I kinda want both. What do you think?"

"I think you'd better find a way to create a couch that can double as a worktable. That's the only way we'll get past this."

Hiro's eyes lit up. "Or even if we had furniture we could just fold out? Like we can take the cushions off and roll the backs out to become a hard floor? Oh, that's a great idea! And for a table… we can put adjustable legs on it so it can be low enough for a sitting are and high enough to work at!"

Gogo rolled her eyes. "Only you would dream this up, Hiro. Only you." She kissed his cheek and a warm feeling filled her chest when she felt the crease of his dimple against her mouth. It was nice to see him happy. "How soon can we sign?"

"I just have to reach out to the landlord and let him know we want the place," Hiro said, clapping his hands together. "This is exciting. It feels like everything is coming together!"

Gogo laughed. "Yes. Now all we have to do is figure out what kind of wedding and we're all set."

Hiro's smile faded just a little and his gaze dropped to the ground. The nagging feeling returned in Gogo's head. This time, she felt like she could guess what it was. "Tadashi isn't going anywhere, Hiro," she whispered. "He's here now."

"I know," Hiro whispered. "It still just feels… fragile, though. Like he might leave again."

Gogo slipped her arm through Hiro's. "If he does, I'll still be here. And it'll all be okay. But he's here, Hiro. He's alive and he's stable. Soon, he'll be home with Cass again while he gets back up on his feet. It's all okay."

Hiro exhaled and nodded. He put his hand on her arm and squeezed before clearing his throat. "What do you say about getting married in the fall?"

"Early fall or late fall?" Gogo asked. "I kinda want an indoor wedding. No wind or rain… or even the sun."

"We can do that. And late fall? I think more muted colors would go better with the purple." He gestured to his hair and then reached out to brush the tips of her hair with a smile. "Just thinking out loud."

"I'll show up in whatever Cass and Honey put me in. You know that."

Hiro laughed. "But does that work?" he asked. "Maybe… November? Five more months?"

Five months… Gogo imagined what sort of wounds Tadashi would have in five months. If he would still be devastated in five months. "Let's make it tentative." She put her arms around Hiro's neck and then paused briefly. "This okay?"

"Of course." He kissed her cheek. "Now, you're clearly out in wonderland. What's on your mind?"

"Hmm…" She drummed her fingers on his neck. "It's a little weird for Tadashi – seeing us together. For us it seems so slow, but for him it feels fast. I'm just wondering what's going through his head."

Hiro chewed on his cheek. "I love you," he said. "And I love Tadashi too, but you're my person. Just… I know it must be weird but I'm not interested in not being who you deserve for his sake. I mean… we're comfortable as we are. And unless you're uncomfortable, I don't want to change anything."

A smile began to tease her face and inch its way onto her mouth. "I am comfortable." She leaned up to kiss his cheek. "But you should still talk to him. Slowly, and not about all the gizmo stuff. He's just feeling lost. We don't have to change us, but he could still use some help."

Hiro nodded, then turned back to the living room. "Oh, he said. "I've just had an idea!" He removed her hands and went to the window, where he began to explain a voice-over system he could install by using mounting wax instead of ripping the wall apart. Gogo leaned against the wall to watch him talk. Seeing him happy was nice.

* * *

After two weeks in the hospital, Tadashi was discharged and brought home. The stairs would not be easy for him to navigate while he continued to heal, but Hiro made sure that Baymax would be available at all times to monitor him and help him wherever he needed to go. He'd be moving out soon, but still have a week to spend in the same room as his brother – something Tadashi seemed wary about.

Everyone gathered at the Lucky Cat Café to await Tadashi's arrival while Cass and Hiro went to get him. Honey snagged a doughnut from the glass display – stress eating, apparently. Gogo watched her pull a chair out and slump down into it, and then took the chair across from her. "I gotta talk to you," she said, inadvertently drawing the attention of Fred, Charlie, and Wasabi. "About Callahan and Tadashi."

"Callahan?" Wasabi asked. He came over to hover behind a third chair while Fred and Charlie stayed a ways away with their arms curled around each other. "What about him?"

"I went to go see him. He said he saw Tadashi right before the explosion but didn't even have time to move. It was seconds before the explosion. Afterward, he searched for a body and found nothing. He said that Tadashi had been right beside your lab, Honey. We think it must have been a freak reaction that sent him forward."

"A freak reaction?" Honey slumped in her chair. "Gogo, don't you think I'd know about it if it were a reaction? Me?"

"I know it's a long shot, but Hiro and I were wondering what you might have had in there. Just… to give us a lead."

Honey snorted and stuffed the rest of the doughnut into her mouth before licking her fingers clean. "Fat chance. I had everything in there. All my experiments and odds and ends. I'd say if you got out a periodic table, and considered every one in liquid, gaseous, and solid form, you might have a solid lead."

Gogo sighed. "Right."

"I think if a reaction could send people through time, we would have found it by now, Gogo," Wasabi said. "The periodic table has been worked on by hundreds of people – hundreds of geniuses. This must be something bigger."

A car pulled up outside. Everyone jumped up and into action, slamming the chairs back underneath the table and brushing off their clothes while they crowded near the door. Wasabi and Fred held large, colorful cards while Charlie supported a tiny "Welcome Home" sign with red and blue balloons on it. Honey had a platter of sushi – one of Tadashi's old favorites.

Cass opened the door with a nervous, shaky smile and turned around. She was filming Tadashi's reaction, even though his expression was quite grim. "And here he is! Home for the first time in eleven years."

Hiro helped Tadashi step inside. "Welcome back, bro," he said.

Tadashi's face was still bruised with some scabs healing over from place to place. His leg was in a cast and his arm in a sling and numerous other places were still wrapped up, but he was alert and was looking a lot better. He skimmed the restaurant and exhaled. "It… kinda looks the same," he said.

"Well, we've replaced the tile, but that's all," Cass chuckled softly. "Do you want a snack? Anything you want – we have these-"

"No thanks, Aunt Cass. I ate before I left." Tadashi painted on his best smile for his aunt and then glanced towards the back. "Can we head up?"

"Of course."

Tadashi passed them all by, nodding at each of their congratulations, and followed Cass to the stairs. She walked up backward, giving Tadashi plenty of room. He paused at the bottom of the stairs and examined the pictures on the wall. One of Hiro's graduation, a couple of other sparse moments in time. One didn't have Cass in it at all – it was just the gang sitting in the café in the sun, studying during finals. Tadashi took it all in and then moved on.

The second floor hadn't changed much either. A few new and updated appliances and pictures and a new rug in front of the sink. Nothing else. Tadashi turned his attention upward.

"Now, we didn't touch your space much," Cass said as she led the way upstairs. Fred and Charlie decided to congregate at the stairs with their items. Wasabi also stopped on the bottom step and leaned against the wall. Honey-Lemon followed Cass, Tadashi, and Hiro straight up. After a moment of deliberation, Gogo decided to head up as well.

It was this area that had the most change. The cover was still closed to Tadashi's room, but Hiro's room held all the necessities of a working genius. Computer, blueprints pined on the wall, inventions-in-the-making where colorful action figures had once been. A calendar had replaced the bot-fighting posters and a picture of everyone sat where the picture of him and Tadashi had once been. The particular photo now rested behind the first, as Hiro hadn't had the heart to completely switch it out.

"Wow," Tadashi said. "It… looks like your workspace, for sure."

"I have an office at the school," Hiro said. "That's where most of the real magic happens. Abigail Callahan, Professor Callahan's daughter, has let me hold onto it all these years. I've got a few other things at Krei Tech… Information Atlas… a few other places. But my main lab is at the school."

"That's… that's great, bro. How do you keep track of it all?"

Hiro chuckled. Cass turned off the camera. She figured the drama and shock was mostly over. "I don't, honestly. Just… pick up whatever I was on whenever I visit again. I hope I can find a place and set up a proper lab. I dunno if I want to be independent or not, but…"

Tadashi looked around again and nodded. He shuffled over to his room to grasp the handle and pull the screen back. He began to puff as he revealed the closed-off portion of the room. Hiro held his breath.

Everything was very dusty. It was almost grey. Tadashi brushed off his bed and a handprint appeared. He winced. "Oh, not to worry," Cass consoled. "I'll get that cleaned up. It completely slipped my mind. When Hiro said he hadn't touched it, well, I didn't realize it would be _untouched_."

Tadashi picked up his baseball cap from the bed. He blew it off and the dust fluttered down like sparkling rain. After snapping it back and forth once or twice more, he set it back on his head. "It… it's good, Aunt Cass. Don't worry about it."

Hiro was struggling. He was taking deep breaths and his hands were buried deep in his pockets. Gogo went to him and put a hand on his arm. That gave him enough strength to take a breath. "All my stuff will be gone in about two weeks. We've got a house down by the gym and near Krei Tech – it's an easier work commute. Plus, it's time I got out of my aunt's attic." He chuckled without humor. "We'll be in and out for a few days and then we'll be down at our new place."

"Maybe we ought to move me out of my place first," Gogo said. "You can hang out here with Cass and Tadashi a little longer."

"It's probably sixes," Hiro reasoned. "But maybe."

Tadashi exhaled and went to sit on his bed. Cass stopped him with a wince. "Oh, honey, let me take your sheets down and throw them into the wash. It'll just be a bit. Hiro, do you have a-"

Hiro pulled the wheeled chair from his desk and slid it towards Tadashi. Tadashi hobbled forward then took a seat, still looking overwhelmed. Gogo moved to help Cass begin stripping Tadashi's bed, not-so-secretly eavesdropping as Hiro and Tadashi made light, awkward conversation.

"So, uh, have you picked a date yet?"

"We have. November the eighth. It's a Wednesday."

"Not too far out. Why then?"

"Well, Gogo and I both have hectic work schedules until then. It's the first day off. We cleared it with everyone else and the only person who would have to call off work is Cass, who would have to call off anyway." Hiro cleared his throat. "What do you think?"

"It's good, man."

Gogo pulled the covers off the pillows and gave Hiro _the look_ over Tadashi's shoulder. He swallowed. "Tadashi, there was something I wanted to ask you. It's pretty important to me."

Tadashi straightened up with a breath. "Yeah?"

"I know you've been out of it and this whole thing is weird for you and I'm sorry, but it's been awful for me… the last few years… doing stuff without you. And my wedding is one thing I don't want to do without you. So I was wondering if you would be my best man. Because I want you to be as close to me as possible."

Gogo glanced over her shoulder at Hiro. She couldn't see Tadashi's expression, but judging from Hiro's relatively calm, hopeful exterior, supposed he was doing a good job of keeping his opinions secret.

What would he do? What would he say?

Cass cleared her throat to signal she needed help carrying everything down and Gogo gathered up the dusty sheets in her arms before following Cass down the stairs. She heard Tadashi's voice float down the stairs, but couldn't decipher anything as the gang moved to let her and Cass through. "It's dusty upstairs," Cass said to Wasabi as they passed. "Can you get some antibacterial wipes and we'll swipe everything down?

Tadashi must have answered Hiro by now. A good answer or a bad answer? Were they both okay? Gogo pulled a stick of gum out of her pocket and popped it into her mouth. Then, after dropping the sheets on the floor of the washroom, as Cass was pulling down the soap, she pulled out another. This was a two-stick problem.

No sooner had the machine dinged and begun to spin was Gogo turning on her heel and heading back towards the upstairs. She took the stairs two at a time and ignored the protesting pull in her leg as she rushed. Then she slid into the room and bounced off of Baymax. The latex protested her sudden arrival by snapping back and Gogo fell on her butt and down the stairs. Before she could tumble all the way down, she snatched the banister and slammed her head on the wall. "Ugh!" she groaned.

"Gogo?" Hiro called from upstairs. There was the buzz of a motor as Baymax turned around and peered down at her, sprawled across the steps like an invalid.

"You have fallen."

Hiro edged past Baymax and jumped down the eight steps to help her up. "What'd you do?" he asked. "Did you slip?"

"Went too fast," Gogo grumbled. She flexed her hand. It was full of splinters now.

"I will scan you now," Baymax announced. "Scan complete. You have sustained minor bruises along your legs, back, and butt. I have readings of twenty-three separate splinters in your right hand. It is important to remove wood splinters before they cause infection. Would you like me to remove them now?"

"Hiro, your robot's annoying," Gogo muttered.

"But helpful." Hiro took her wrist and forced her to spread out her hand. "Dang. You certainly got a bunch. And off of a polished banister too."

Gogo glared at the wooden rail and noticed a break near the first hook on the wall. "It looks like I owe Cass a new banister. We need to have one in for Tadashi."

"Oh, no problem dear," Cass said from the bottom of the steps. "Are you alright?" That was quite the tumble."

"I'm fine." Hiro took her elbow and began to help her pry herself off the step. Her back protested. "Ow! That'll hurt in the morning," she grumbled.

He snorted and rolled his eyes before moving his hand to the middle of her back and helping her up the stairs. "Don't fall again."

"I won't fall again. I can walk just fine."

"Well I thought that before you fell at all, and yet-"

"Would you like me to remove your splinters now?" Baymax interrupted. Gogo sighed and held her hand out. "Knock yourself out, buddy," she said.

"You alright?" Tadashi called from behind Baymax, Wasabi, and Charlie. Everyone turned and Gogo glimpsed Tadashi with one hand tight on the armrest of Hiro's chair, trying to stand. "Here, you can take this chair. I really don't need-"

"No, no, that's fine," Gogo waved him off. Hiro moved his hand from her back to her waist. Gogo used her good hand to grab his wrist, turned, and met his eyes. Hiro removed his hand without another question.

"You sure you're alright?"

"Bruised. What else is new?"

"Not sure. I was the one asking you after all. Do you want to come sit on-"

"The splinters appear to be near the surface," Baymax interrupted. "I suggest a minor peroxide that will cause the wood to pull towards the surface and then a household glue to pull the splinters off. Hiro, is there a glue present?"

"There it – there is! On my desk." Hiro slipped away and brushed past Honey-Lemon, floating beside Tadashi and pulling nervously at her bag. He snatched a bottle of Elmer's glue and tossed it across the room to Gogo, who caught it with her good hand and held it for Baymax when he coated her hand in a liquid that made her skin tingle.

"Oh, Gogo," Hiro said. She glanced over and watched Hiro set his hands on Tadashi's shoulders. "He said yes, by the way."

"Yes?" Gogo repeated.

"Yes to what?" Wasabi echoed.

"Yes to being my best man." Hiro's hair fell in front of his eyes briefly. "November the eighth."

"That's wonderful," Gogo exhaled and brushed her hair out of her face. "Now we just have to figure out the rest of – ow!" Baymax had yanked off the hardened glue and pulled every splinter with it. Only a few drops of blood pooling in her palm remained. "Way to warn a girl, Baymax! Ow!"

"You have been a good girl," Baymax cooed. "Have a lollypop." He held up a green sucker.

"Is that watermelon?" Hiro called. "Can I have it if it's watermelon?"

Gogo tossed it to him with an eye-roll. "Whatever, nerd."

"Do you have a date you're moving out then?" Honey asked, leaning against Tadashi's mattress. "Do I need to be home to help you pack up?"

"I think we're both going to start slowly packing," Gogo said. She kept a close eye on Hiro to make sure that she wasn't speaking without him. "I think we'll move my stuff first and that way Hiro and Tadashi can spend some time together."

Everyone nodded and glanced over to Tadashi, who was nodding along with everyone. He cleared his throat when he noticed everyone looking at him. "Thanks, guys. I appreciate the thought." He turned to Hiro. "We'll have to go do some stuff together before you bite the dust. You'll have to… catch me up."

"Absolutely!" Hiro exclaimed. "First, we should introduce you to Abigail Callahan – maybe she can help you? After all, she was gone for a long time too and she had to adjust back to life when she got back. And I want to show you Krei Tech – you wouldn't believe how big the labs are. And the city… we definitely have to take you flying and show you Baymax's rocket fist… not to mention figuring out what happened and getting to the bottom of this all."

Tadashi's smile had grown a bit tight. Everyone was looking in between Hiro and Tadashi nervously as they waited for his response.

"Great."

* * *

The school cafeteria was every bit as crowded as Tadashi remembered it. About two feet by two feet by his height of breathing space and more smells than should be able to consist in that area. Meatballs and sauces and soups and cheeses all filled the air. The familiarity of the scent was good because nothing else was. All the lines had been placed by small restaurant chains like a mall or something. The tables had been updated to be further apart from everyone and there were so many more of them. Miles and miles of tables.

"Let's take this table," Fred announced, slinging his bag over a chair parked in front of a large kidney-shaped table. "Ours now. I'm going to go get some pizza."

"Don't the students need the table?" Tadashi asked Charlie as Fred disappeared and reappeared in between the heads of various people on his way to "Italiano's Pizzeria."

"The cafeteria is open to the public, actually. The campus just owns and regulates it. Anyone's allowed to come and go." Zie tucked zir hands into zir pockets and blew the purple side of zir hair out of zir face. "Um… do you know what you're doing? Have any place you want to go?"

"I have no idea," Tadashi admitted, fingering the card in his pocket. "I don't recognize most of these places.

"My favorite's Centerlife. That place over there. They do soups, rice bowls, some tacos, and salads. I like their Mediterranean salad. Want to come with me?"

To be honest, the idea of a rice bowl was not appealing to Tadashi. He pinched his lips together and exhaled.

"…You could also get a plate of steak and some sides if you wanted?"

"Deal." He nodded and let Charlie begin to lead the way over. They joined the line of people inching their way through. For a healthy place, it was pretty busy. Apparently people liked this sort of thing.

"So," Tadashi began. "How long have you and Fred known each other?"

"A year and a half," Charlie said. "We met in college."

"Fred? College?"

"Video Game design." Ze then directed zer attention to the tender behind the counter. "Hey Ron. My usual, please. How's work?"

While Charlie and the worker made small chat, Tadashi lost himself in the menu. "Uhh…."

"Do you need help?" A second person asked behind the counter, pulling on gloves with a snap against their skin.

"I have no idea what I'm doing…"

"Give him a steak plate," Charlie interrupted. "He'll pick his sides down the line. Come on." Ze took Tadashi's arm and pulled him down the line.

They made it back to their table before Fred did since the line was so outrageously long. Tadashi was surprised he liked the food so much – even the maple-bacon-brussel-sprouts. Whoever would have thought of combining those things?

"So…" He tried again to make small talk. "Is it… cool being non-binary?"

Charlie made a face. "Is it cool being a male?"

Tadashi immediately ducked his head. "Sorry. That was a stupid question."

"It was." Charlie cracked open a coca-cola and took a sip as she continued glancing around for Fred.

"Is that safe for vegans?" he asked, gesturing to the soda.

"Yup," Charlie agreed. Tadashi decided to keep quiet. The more he said, the more awkward things became. He picked at his steak and wondered how much longer Fred might be. Hopefully, he'd be able to come up with something normal to talk about.

Charlie tapped on the table in front of him and pointed to something over his shoulder. Tadashi turned just in time to see Wasabi set his things down two chairs away from him. "Hey!" he announced. "Glad to see you up and moving! Thanks for coming out."

"No problem." Behind Wasabi was a tall, slender woman with dark brown eyes and eyes who was wearing a trimmed, white suit. She put a hand on the chair beside Tadashi and stretched out her hand, which he shook.

"Are you Tadashi?"

He nodded.

"Nice to finally meet you."

Wasabi cleared his throat. "Tadashi, this is Abigail Callahan. She's the dean of the university and came down to meet you in regards to your mutual disappearing experiences."

"I must admit, it's strange to see someone like me," Abigail said, pulling out the chair with a grind against the tiles and then taking a seat. "Stuck in time. I was twenty-six when I vanished and was gone for over fifteen years too. But I knew what had happened. I can't imagine just… blinking and being somewhere else. You must be really anxious to solve that mystery."

"Not quite," Tadashi thought. Hiro was – Hiro desperately needed that explanation. The reason his brother had been torn from him. But Tadashi just wanted rest. He wanted to be angry in peace. If the world had to change overnight, couldn't he have a month or so to just soak it all in and get a phone and learn about what had happened? It was hard enough coming back from the dead – he also had to do it legally. Legally get his license back when he was eleven years off his age and fix all the records and geesh, he hadn't even started thinking about what life was going to be like after everything. Back to college? Who knew?

Abigail put her fingertips together and exhaled. "I remember very clearly that I went into the portal, it became very hot, and my vision went foggy. Then it became extremely cold, and I felt the life support system in my suit kick in before I blacked out. When I woke back up, I was on a stretcher and people were wheeling me away. But I kept falling back to sleep and it took a long time to get back into shape. Therapy and special diets and stuff like that. They told me things in increments, but it took a while for me to understand because my brain was still waking up. So they told me that I had been in hypersleep first, then they mentioned my dad was in jail, and eventually, we got down to the nitty-gritty bits of that story. But there was time."

A flare of jealousy that somehow managed to be both hot and cold ran through him. "There's been no time," he spat. Charlie's fork faltered as she stabbed her salad and Wasabi paused in pulling his class binder out of his work bag. "I was talking to my brother. I remember him so clearly… he was five feet tall and his hair all spiky… and the next thing I know he's as tall as I am and standing over my bed in the hospital with a fiancée who's my good friend and-" He clenched his teeth. "No one gets that. No one understands what it's like to see someone within five wakeful minutes gain eleven years. I just-" He ran his hands through his hair and pulled.

Abigail was nodding along with his words. "I remember seeing my dad for the first time," she whispered. "He was almost seventy years old. Seventy. He was 52 when I left. He had all these grey hairs and wrinkles and spots on his skin… didn't even look like himself."

"My aunt Cass has grey hairs. I just – she's always been twenty to me. Always. But this twenty-year-old just aged right before my eyes."

"I know." Abigail nodded. "I know."

"And the worst part is-" Tadashi bit his tongue. He wasn't even sure how to put this. "Hiro has all these… accolades and awards and accomplishments. He was nominated for the peace prize. The peace prize. And he's engaged. He never had an interest in dating anyone – thought all relationships were too controlling and now he's got a fiancée who he's helping upstairs and she walks and his eyes follow… Oh skies, I hate it."

There was a very, very tense silence. Tadashi felt the beginnings of dread creeping down his spine, but the floodgates had opened and there wasn't any going back now.

He licked his lips and tried to find the right words. "Gogo… intimidated me. She was flippant and brutally honest, but smart and dedicated. We were lab partners. She went from being the person I had to lean back from to save the skin on my nose to my future sister-in-law in a day and I _can't_ put the two together."

"My dad went from my supporter and friend to a prison occupant. And it was over me, too."

"I can't help thinking about everything I missed-"

"Everything I could have been a part of-"

"All of Hiro's achievements-"

"Leaving my dad alone to waste away-"

"How different my life would be-"

"What could have happened if I had just-"

"Stayed," they finished together. Tadashi heaved a huge breath. His head felt heavier but his shoulders felt lighter. Funny how that worked."

Wasabi cleared his head. "Dean," he began. "Can I get you something to eat?"

"No, thank you," Abigail shook her head. "I ate upstairs."

Someone appeared, huffing and puffing, behind Tadashi. It was Honey-Lemon, who dropped everything into the seat beside Tadashi. "Sorry I'm late!" she exclaimed. "I got caught up with grading and wasn't watching the clock. She pulled a lunch box out of one of her bags and then began shuffling everything onto the ground and the back of the seat.

Tadashi mustered up the courage to smile at her. "Hey, Honey-Lemon," he whispered.

Her cheeks bloomed with color. "Tadashi," she said. "How are you feeling?"

He shrugged. "Hanging in there." A thought struck him and he returned his attention to Abigail. "Ms. Callahan, how did you process things, once the gravity began to sink in?"

Abigail exhaled. "Well, there isn't really a way you can force your brain to accept everything. To be honest, I don't think I handled it all that well."

"No?"

"No. I screamed, I cried, I went to the dollar store and bought a whole stack of dishes and went into a concrete room and smashed them all until there was nothing but dust. Then I did it again, and again, and again…"

"Did it help?"

Abigail closed her mouth. Tadashi watched her think. Observed the tremor in her lip and the curl of her pinky and the way the pulse in her neck grew as some of that emotion – that residual anger – returned to rile her once more. "Not really," she admitted finally, deflating as the words left her. "I wanted it to. But nothing did. I just had to wait and… distract myself."

He pushed his tray back and folded his hands on the table. "What distractions?" he asked.

Abigail could only shrug. "So many things. So many. It just didn't work. I didn't feel like I belonged in that era… felt displaced… and it took a long time for me to wake up and feel like I had a place and time that was mine again." A finger went to her lips. "You know what did help, strangely? I kept a planner. Had never kept a planner in my life. I kept it and wrote everything down that was going to happen, categorized everything, and I stuck to it. It helped me to feel like I had… I don't know… assignments to do. Things that needed me in the time period I was in. I even allotted my sleep – my bed needed me right then, at that night, in the year… whatever."

"I'll try that," Tadashi said. "Really, I will. Thank you."

"And get some friends," Abigail said. "All my friends had lives when I came back from the gone. Get some people to help you belong better."

"Ahem," Wasabi cleared his throat. "We're here. We're friends. Most of us don't have lives."

"Is that an admission of guilt?" Gogo had appeared behind Wasabi. She bopped him on the back of the head as he tried to take a drink and the straw jabbed into his nose. Behind her, Hiro was focusing on a screen balanced in both hands and muttering wildly to himself. He felt with his foot for the bench and then took a seat on the edge, facing completely away from the group.

Wasabi snorted. "I don't think Hiro is working is working hard enough, Gogo."

"It's not me," Hiro muttered. "It's the equipment! It doesn't – won't – calibrate…"

He pounded furiously on the screen and a red alert appeared in the top right. "Fine," he snapped and shut the display off. "Fabulous. Mechanical error. I'm going to have to leave and go fix it." He dug a crisp, red apple out of his bag and chomped as he fumed.

"What is it?" Tadashi asked.

Hiro waved a hand in annoyance. "Krei tech voice over," he grumbled. "Hasn't been working right all week but they dropped it on me now and need it fixed by two for their board meeting with the other parts of the company. I thought I could fix it remotely, but apparently, they blew a fuse by interrupting it while it was learning a new voice."

"Fabulous," Wasabi snorted. "Your speech recognition is very picky. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Hiro said. "Still made me more than your lasers did."

Wasabi pulled a face of rage and everyone laughed at his disdain. Gogo gestured to Honey Lemon. "Did you cut your hair?"

Honey touched the ends carefully. "I did. Just a bit."

"Looks nice."

Hiro threw his hair forward and ran his hands through it. "I need to get my hair recolored," he said. "I've got, like, an inch of black."

"What color?" Gogo asked.

Hiro huffed. "Not sure. Maybe I should just cut it so there's no color for the wedding?"

Gogo shrugged. "Just ask Cass what color we should get and I'll get the dye."

Honey Lemon let out a disgusted gasp. "You – what do you mean, ask Cass? It's your wedding!"

"Oh, we're planning the important stuff," Gogo assured her. "I want a chocolate cake and Hiro wants gummy bears decorating it and I want my old friend who's now a pastor to officiate and Hiro wants to pick the venue, and I said absolutely no garter ceremony and Hiro was made to agree with me."

Wasabi laughed and accidentally sprayed the table with soda droplets. "He was _made_ to agree with you?"

"It was a choice between life and death," Hiro rolled his eyes. "Also safety and utter embarrassment."

"Tasteful," Gogo said.

Hiro only shook his head. "There are just some traditions that shouldn't have become traditions," he sighed.

Tadashi listened to everything and fumed. His hand shook on the tablecloth as he pictured it. Would Cass go with yellow? Or pink? He'd seen his aunt plan other people's weddings… already knew she'd demand pearls everywhere… he pictured Gogo holding flowers and shuddered. Bile rushed up his throat.

Honey Lemon put her hand over his. "Are you okay?" she asked. "You look… pale."

"Oh, my stomach just turned," Tadashi waved her off. "I just… I'm fine." He picked up his drink and took a few bracing sips while Gogo and Hiro continued bantering, talking about everything. He stared at them, trying to deduce whether he was hallucinating… if they were even real.

Hiro's phone rang halfway through him mansplaining where he wanted to have the wedding and he picked up his phone with a growl. "Hiro Hamada." A pause. "Yes, I know. I'll be there in an hour – you got to be kidding me. Already? Fine. Yeah, whatever." He snapped the phone off and picked his bag up. "Bad news – people arrived early for the meeting. They're delaying, but I can no longer delay." He bent down to kiss Gogo's cheek, pausing for at least two seconds before making a quick contact.

Gogo waved. "Bye, dork," she said. "Do you need help packing up tonight?"

"No. Do you?"

"Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, bye."

"Bye." Hiro waved goodbye to them all and took off across the cafeteria, weaving under arms and around seats and past people.

Gogo spooned a bit of yogurt with her plastic spoon and bent the handle back. "Fred," she said, and he immediately dropped his face to the table as she released the handle and catapulted the snack into Fred's mouth. "Do you guys know if we're going out in suit tonight?"

"Not as a group," Wasabi said. "I think Honey was going to go out for a bit, right?"

"I was," Honey nodded.

Tadashi looked between them all. With everything going on, he'd forgotten about the superhero group his friends had formed. Vigilantes. He wondered when he'd get to see them in suit and how he'd react to that.

"Hey," Wasabi said, breaking Tadashi's thoughts into pieces. "We should show Tadashi the labs." He leaned over and poked Tadashi's shoulder. "Are you almost done? I have to head back to classes soon."

"Done?" Tadashi glanced down at the food. None of it seemed very appetizing anymore. "Yes, of course. We can go now."

Everyone snatched up the last bits of their food that they wanted. Fred shoved the entire crust down his throat and then chugged the rest of his soda before snatching his and Charlie's stuff. Everyone else gobbled down their last things in moderation as they scooped up trays and headed over to the trashes together. Abigail Callahan shook Tadashi's hand. "It was nice to meet you, Tadashi," she said. "Let me know if you need anything."

Honey Lemon had paused to sip at her drink as Tadashi wandered over and dumped his excess lunch. She made a sound like a stifled burp or a deep swallow and he managed to look up and lock eyes with her. She tugged at the ends of her hair and waited for him. God, it was so weird to see her with short hair. And she was, like, old. She had a job and stress wrinkles and didn't laugh as uncontrollably.

Wasabi ended up leading the way by default since he was the only one with any real authority on campus. He droned on and on while they toured past students in various degrees of study and relaxing. Telling Tadashi details that didn't matter – what the fire had touched, what had been recovered, and how long it had taken.

As they wandered towards the exposition hall, they crossed the bridge. Tadashi put his hand down and let his fingertips glide over the railing.

This felt like a sad movie. He could hear the music playing. The camera panning in on his burns and then flipping up to see the nostalgia in his eyes. Soon, his screen time would end and he'd return to the normal world and everything would be back. Fourteen-year-old Hiro on the back of his motorbike and friends cramming for finals and Aunt Cass looking him up and down without the tears.

Something ran into his side and knocked his train of thought off course. "Hey Smartie," Gogo said, "Anything happening in that brain?"

Tadashi stopped. "Is the hall really that different?" he asked and kept his gaze trained on the metal panels forming the bridge. Holes punched through so you could see the reflection of the fake creek flowing through his fake world despite this being a real place with real connections in his real life. "The last time I saw it, it was pretty… scorched."

"It looks different," Gogo said. "It's green. Has circuit designs on the glass. The building has Hiro's voice tech ingrained, so it talks to you. The layout is similar. I mean, you could probably find a bathroom or whatever."

"It's where they found you," Honey said. "You popped into the place our old lab was."

Tadashi scuffed his shoe against the metal grate. "Ah… maybe you should all go on without me. Not sure I really want to see everything gone."

"Well, we don't really have a reason to go if you don't go…"

Fred threw his arm around Tadashi. "Hey man, don't worry! Just pretend it's another building! And if you start feeling like you may teleport again, try and-"

"Fred! Not helping!"

Gogo squeezed in between Fred and Tadashi and threw him off. She passed him to Charlie and then turned to Tadashi with her arms crossed. "Look, I get if you don't want to go in. We can leave the building behind and go catch up with Hiro at Krei Tech. You could catch up with him there. Or we could take you to the old computer labs and let you browse the web for stuff. Or we can go back to Cass's and pull the door closed so you can sit in your room and pretend it's still 3027 and Hiro's an angsty teen who jumps to conclusions way too easily. But assuming you're _not_ going to teleport out of our lives and you're going to start trying to build yourself a safe place in this world, you should probably woman up and make a decision that will help you, not shut you up in your head more than you already are."

Tadashi couldn't find the strength to scuff his foot against the metal holes, much less try and bite back at Gogo and her unwanted discourse. He stuffed his bandaged hands into his pockets and balled them up into angry fists of frustration before he turned, picked up his foot to walk away, and then found himself heaving a sigh of frustration. "3038," he huffed.

Honey Lemon reached out a hand. He took it and used it to turn himself back around. Fred jumped into the air with his fist raised high. "Yahoo! Go Tadashi! You fight those inner demons! Yeaaaa-"

Charlie elbowed him in the stomach and Fred doubled over, his salutations gone just as quickly as the rest of Tadashi's world. Gogo twisted her hands – a nervous habit he didn't remember her having – and almost made to offer another hand or arm or shoulder. Tadashi was glad when he saw her squash the idea. He didn't like these lies of his friends, but seeing Gogo was almost as painful as seeing Hiro and Cass. Instead, Wasabi came to take his arm and help him down the decline of the bridge and Gogo lagged behind the group and dug in her pocket for a stick of bubble gum.

To be honest and fair and all those unchangeable qualities, Tadashi had to admit that the gum almost made up for the twisting hands and fancy tech and the ring that Gogo chose to present herself with. Almost.

They made their way up as a sort of conglomerate battalion. Tadashi felt like he had the Secret Security around him(who would win, superheroes or Secret Security?) but still braced himself when they slowed down and all turned their eyes on him to see if he would look up.

He did, letting his eyes crawl up like something nasty out of the dark. As Gogo described, the place was now green. Green glass with pictures of students flashing across screens without frames, floating in view of the sun and any random passerby. Doors that molded with the exterior. People wandering inside with papers but only visible for the first five feet in. One professor with an arm against the glass as he peered down at nature growing around the building.

Honey cleared her throat and gestured towards the steps up to the building. They were the originals. The back handles were all slightly warped from the blast, but they'd been painted dark grey and stood at forward angles, still prepared to guide him up even though they were nothing like they'd been the last time he'd crossed them.

It was odd to see the scorched concrete and the heat waves on the steps when everything around it was pristine and new.

Did he feel better or worse now that he'd seen it?

Honey began pulling on his arm though, so he went with better until he could further examine his feelings and then let her lead him up. He let his brain shut down and stop racing so he could focus on accepting this new place. A place of knowledge. A place of safety. Not the same place that had almost ripped the life out of him.

Two eyes appeared over the doors as they approached. "Hello!" the building greeted. It sounded a bit like a stereotypical nerd – slurring and speaking in a nasally manner. "Welcome back, Professor Wayans, Aiko Miyazaki, Fred Fredrickson, Leiko Tanaka, Charlie Mitsubishi. I see you have someone new! Is this a guest?"

"Hello Stan-lee," Wasabi said. "Please add Tadashi Hamada to your database."

"Hello, Tadashi! Please respond for voice recognition."

Everyone turned to nod Tadashi onwards. He was at a loss for words. "I – uh – hi?"

"Tadashi, I see you are injured. We have a variety of medical aids including moving chairs and canes. Would you like one?"

"Uh, no thanks."

The doors threw themselves apart from each other with a whooshing sound that almost reminded Tadashi of a toilet flushing. "Welcome to the labs!" Stan-lee proclaimed.

"Does he always greet everyone?" Tadashi whispered. "Like, every morning?"

"It's a computer," Charlie said. "And when there's more than three it usually says 'Hello Everyone' every thirty seconds or so. We must have been moving really slow for it to announce us all."

Tadashi sighed. He couldn't keep up with his friends or these changes or-

"Here's the labs!" Wasabi announced. He turned and focused on Tadashi. "Do you need a moment to take them in?"

Actually, he wanted back out as soon as possible.

Tadashi shook his head. "No, uh, let's just see our old lab and maybe walk by my old office and then… I think I'd just like to go home and rest."

"You got it!" Fred exclaimed. He galloped past and then bent into a crouch beside one of the first doors on the left. "Behold! The great and powerful Stan-three!"

Tadashi pointed after Fred. "Is every room named after…"

"No," Wasabi assured him as he clapped Tadashi on the shoulder. "Fred just calls them that. Come on!"

Two silver doors with some sort of fist emblem in the middle slid open and revealed the hustle and bustle that had filled every lab in the school for decades. Tadashi let out a sigh of relief, squeezed Honey's hand on his arm once more, and then pulled away.

Fred's armchair was gone and replaced by a more modern set of furniture that currently doubled as a place to spread homework. Gogo's old station had a bazooka hanging from the ceiling instead of a bike, but it didn't look ready to fire anytime soon. Dozens of blackberries were strung in strings from it. Small sparks jumped from place to place here and there. In Honey's place, a girl worked with skin dyes on her wrist and deactivators spread before her. Wasabi's place Tadashi couldn't find due to the mess it was. And now he was passing through the walkways to the door in the back of the room. He put his hand up – not to knock, just to set it down, and then paused at the name on the door.

Hiro Hamada.

"This is Hiro's old office?"

"Abigail keeps it for him. He still comes out to work every so often," Wasabi explained. "I think they're going to keep it honorary." He reached for the lock, undid it, and let Tadashi step in.

A fair bit of rage was slammed onto his shoulders. Papers everywhere, piles of wires, four computer screens? He pulled his hair. "What did he do?" he exclaimed.

"This is just how Hiro works." Gogo wandered past and picked up a circuit board that had been set on a shelf. "Don't you remember how he did all the microbots? The bigger the metal scrap piles got, the faster he worked."

They didn't see the same issue Tadashi was seeing. This was – had been – his space. His office and his ideas. And Hiro had taken over and made everything different in a way Tadashi hated. Even his life work, Baymax, had been patented and distributed by Hiro. All of this was so… unfair!

Tadashi brushed through a few piles of blueprints and melted plastic and soldering wire before he braved up the nerve to turn around and swallow. "All my stuff was destroyed, huh?"

"He tried to rebuild some of it. But you guys are different people," Honey said.

"I know it's a shock," Gogo said. "Being in this room, in this place… that was how Hiro dealt with the hurt. He wanted to pretend you were still there… doing things for him."

"So he did a whole bunch of stuff in my name and pretended," Tadashi surmised. He found a photo tacked to the wall – Gogo holding up a smaller Baymax charger with a deflated Baymax inside. "That's flattering – I haven't actually done any of my own work."

"It's basically the same thing you're doing now," Gogo said.

He couldn't stop his glare and the anger this time. "What?" he snapped. "Do you even know what I'm going through?"

"Of course," Gogo said. "Everything changed for him, he tried to pretend everything was the same and things were still happening until he could mentally cope with the fact his brother was dead. Wouldn't even draw the divider closed on your room for a month because he knew you'd be coming up the stairs soon. And here you are, pretending this is your room and school and life and pushing away the things that tell you otherwise. In your mind, your brother snuck into your office and moved things. In reality, you were gone."

"Gogo, you may be being a bit too harsh…" Honey whispered as Tadashi tried to take deep breaths.

"He needs it." Gogo fixed her collar and snapped her gum. "Just like Hiro needed to fight Callahan. He's running. But you can't outrun an entire world."


	6. The Authority Commodity

**Happy Valentine's Day.**

* * *

"Mrs. Matsuda's in the café. She's wearing something super inappropriate for a ninety-year-old. You should… come down. Be part of things." The plate of chicken wings slid onto the desk and into his field of vision, covering the white paper and somehow causing the towering pile of crumbled-up bad ideas to dim and disappear.

"No thanks, Aunt Cass," Tadashi mumbled.

The hand that landed on his shoulder felt like a burner against his new skin. A hand went under his chin and tugged it to the side. "Hey," Cass whispered. "I know that this is something you have to work through but… you should talk to Hiro. He was exactly like this after… the accident."

Tadashi pulled his head away. "I'll think about it. Thanks."

Cass stayed, crouched over, and didn't move for a few seconds. "I've been thinking… it might help to get you a therapist. Just someone you can talk to."

"I don't need a-"

"There's a lady I go to every few months," Cass cut him off, sliding a card onto his desk. "She's good. Really good. We could try her out."

Tadashi closed his mouth and his gaze wandered over the pile of no-goods and to the windowsill. Outside, the roars of engines seemed a bit louder. "I'll think about it," he said.

Cass set her hand on his shoulder, squeezed, and began to walk away. Her fingertips slid down and the chill he'd been stuck in set back in.

All until he heard a thunk from down the stairs.

"Ouch!" Hiro's complaint floated up the stairs. "That's, uh, that's my arm."

"Sorry. Boxes slipping."

Gogo appeared at the top of the stairs amid a very long, side stack of folded boxes she was trying to keep from sliding out from under her arm. These she set against the wall before turning to take more boxes from Hiro, who relinquished them while rubbing his arm with a wrinkled nose. They were both sporting streaks of gold in their bangs.

"Hey bro," Hiro said as he snapped one of the boxes open and began folding the bottom in. "How are you feeling?"

Tadashi raised his hand. "Fine," he said. "Gogo all moved out?"

"All done," Gogo nodded. "We're going to start moving Hiro out today."

"Will we be bothering you?" Hiro asked. "What are you working on?"

"I'm not working on anything." Tadashi drew the plate of wings closer to further shield the blank page mocking him. "You won't be bothering me."

Gogo stuck her head under the desk and began unplugging cords. Hiro readied a box behind her and then set about unplugging his alarm clock and lamp from beside his bed. When Gogo stuck her hand out to search for a place to set the disconnected power strip, the box was exactly where she needed it to be.

"I don't have too much here," Hiro said as he took out the lightbulb and set the lamp in the box. "Just clothes and old knickknacks. It's probably a good thing we cleaned you out first, Gogo." He nudged her with his foot.

"Fight me, Hiro."

"Ah, sorry, I don't fight _girls."_

Gogo stuck her head out and blew her bangs out of her face with a huff. Hiro immediately held his hands up in surrender. "I got it, I got it," he said, and Gogo disappeared again.

Tadashi snorted and Hiro grinned. "I've already got this married thing down."

"Yes, I'm the one doing everything and you're chatting with your brother," Gogo said from underneath the desk as she finished detaching everything. Hiro flushed and immediately grabbed another box. Tadashi furrowed his brow. The way they acted made it seem like this was a bigger problem, but there wasn't any more dialogue as Hiro snapped open another box and opened the top drawer of his dresser.

Gogo put the drawer dividers on top of each other from Hiro's desk and began wrapping the monitor for travel by stealing shirts from Hiro's box. She took out a stack of papers from the second drawer down to hold the monitor flat while it was transported and then shut the box and hefted it up under one arm, muscles bulging from shoulder to wrist. "One down," she announced.

"I'll get a head start on all the clothes and stuff up here while you take that down to the truck," Hiro said. "Maybe then one of us can do carrying and the other can do packing like we did at your place?"

"Like a well-oiled machine," Gogo hummed. "Okay. Be right back." She kissed Hiro's cheek as she passed and then headed down the stairs, jumping back every second stair. Tadashi heard her pause on the last stair, once she was out of sight, and listen before continuing on her way.

Had Gogo told Hiro anything?

Tadashi turned his suspicious gaze onto his brother, who remained oblivious as he emptied out his drawers and opened two more boxes in advance. Once the drawers were cleared out, pictures began coming off the walls. Hiro was finishing piling the contents of his desk into a box when Gogo finally resurfaced. "Cass stole me," she said before he could make a snide remark about how far he'd gotten. She stooped down and began sealing up another box.

"Let me take that down." Hiro jumped down from his bed, where he'd been taking action figures off the shelf.

"I got it. I can do it."

"I know you can. But let me. You carried everything at your place."

Gogo hesitated and relinquished the box. Hiro took it and another one off the floor and disappeared again.

Tadashi's pencil tip thudded against the paper, leaving smudges but no concrete ideas.

Gogo climbed up on the bed and, using the desk as a place to set her foot for additional balance and height, began to remove things off the shelves. Childhood action figures and trophies and a high school diploma. Then, Tadashi watched her bounce up, trying to snatch the last two items and falling short by mere inches.

"You could get up," something prompted him. "Go help her."

"It's Gogo. She doesn't need help."

Gogo arched her fingers and stood on her tiptoes. Her foot slid off the desk and her head knocked against the wall. "Ooph!" she gasped for breath and immediately sat down and dropped her head onto Hiro's pillow.

Tadashi got up. Gogo was moving still, rubbing her head. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Should I wake Baymax up?" The robot was still on its charger in a corner of the room.

"I'm just dizzy," Gogo said. "I'm fine." And she slowly worked herself back into a sitting position. Tadashi reached up and took down the last two items on the shelf. The first was Hiro's old fighter bot with the yellow happy face. The second was a piece of glass with a microbot stuck in it. Tadashi paused before handing it to Gogo.

"Hiro said those were discontinued, right?"

"Yeah," Gogo agreed. "I think he sold the blueprints to the government and they've probably got a stash somewhere. We have a stash too and so does Krei Tech, but they're not for the public. Too dangerous."

"Because of Callahan."

"Everything is because of Callahan, somehow."

Tadashi hummed and put the glass thing into the box with the other knick-knacks. Gogo slowly got back to her feet and rifled through the few remaining drawers. Swept away the pictures remaining on the nightstand. Bundled up the cords and laid them to rest. Tadashi felt himself going numb again until she went over to the pegs on the wall and hesitated.

With a cautious glance over her shouder, she removed the hoodies and jackets that belonged to Hiro, most inscribed with Krei Tech or SFIT. As she went to put them in the box, she tapped Baymax's charger with her foot. "Have you guys discussed who has Baymax custody?" she asked.

Tadashi shook his head. "No," he said.

Gogo pulled a hat off another hook as she passed and flapped it out. This, too, she looked extremely conflicted about as she neared the box of stuff.

"I told you I didn't have much," Hiro said, popping back in. "I can grab anything else for the house from my offices and-" He paused upon seeing the hat. Gogo cleared her throat and handed it to him. It was then that Tadashi realized it was his old SFIT hat.

Hiro wrung the brim in his hands. "I, uh, it flew off when you ran in. I kept it… kinda convinced myself I was borrowing it for a really long time. Like you'd come back and pick it up. So, uh, do you want it back?" He held it out for Tadashi to receive.

Tadashi reached out and took the hat. It didn't feel like his hat. It was worn around the ears and had a tear on the brim and a concave where it was normally hung. But he smiled a little and put it on before nodding and Hiro. "Thanks for keeping it for me."

"No problem." Hiro gathered up two more boxes and began to disappear again, with Gogo grabbing two others and preparing to follow him down.

"What are we doing with Baymax?"

"Oh, he's staying here with Tadashi and Cass. An extra pair of hands, you know? I was thinking maybe we could-"

Their voices faded away and Tadashi gradually struggled through the room and found himself staring at his plate and the blank paper it sat upon. He picked up Cass's card and turned it over to watch the black lettering grow smaller and larger and he tilted forward and backward. Maybe he ought to look into it.

* * *

"My brother is getting married in two months."

"Congratulations."

"I hate him. I'm trying not to, but it's hard."

The silence that Mrs. Takachiho provided almost fooled Tadashi into thinking she was surprised. But no, no. When he said nothing else, she cleared her throat to talk. "It's hard for him too. You've been gone for so long and you've missed so much he wanted you there for…"

"I haven't been gone at all in my head and now he's overwhelming me with… things." He brought his fists up to the side of his head and shook them in building frustration. He felt like a jenga block building with every supporting piece removed, teetering on the edge of collapse. And there was no way to convey that feeling.

"I think he's afraid you'll leave again."

"I want to leave again." This time, the surprise really was partially surprise-driven. He could feel it in the air and it immediately made him backpedal. "I mean… I just want a hecking break. Is it too much for me to ask him to put off his wedding until I can look him in the eyes?"

The air of disapproval clouded him on top of the stress, shock, jealousy… everything. "He's waited seven years for this day… it's still his life too."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Mrs. Takachiho pulled her chair closer. "Don't worry about it, Tadashi. I know it's difficult. If you don't mind, how are you feeling physically?"

"Not much better. The burns are awful, my lungs don't want to breathe… I'm never hungry anymore."

"You're in shock and your body needs that nutrition. If you can, try and focus on eating just one solid meal a day. Even if it's ramen noodles, just sit down and have a full bowl."

"I know, I know." Tadashi covered his face with his hands. He knew, he knew.

"What else do you need to talk about?" Mrs. Takachiho asked.

So many things. So many people and pictures and things he'd thought since waking up. Tadashi swallowed. "I feel…"

Abandoned. Hurt. Confused. Estranged.

"Fake," he decided. "The world moved on. All my friends moved on. And now I don't feel like Tadashi the student or the nephew or the brother. I'm…" It was hard to huck up the words. "I'm the fake friend everyone accepts even though they don't fit in. I'm the tag-along. I'm some sort of bizarre science fair experiment. I feel like a fake person."

"You feel like your family and friends are pretending to be there for you?"

"Yes, but more than that." Tadashi finally found something – some backbone that hadn't been in alignment for him to use – and met her eyes. "I'm still living in 3027 and everyone here is in a different universe. But if I don't mix over and fix whatever is wrong with me, then I'm letting Hiro and Cass and everyone down. They want me to be part of their world, but I'm not. So I feel fake."

"You just said that they moved on. Why do you put so much pressure on yourself to change if they've accepted everything?"

"They did move on. They have lives. Hiro is getting married, for crying out loud. But he wants me to be part of the wedding and wants to come home for dinner with us all and wants-"

"If I may," Mrs. Takachiho interrupted, running her hands down her skirt. "Do you want him to stop coming around? Or do you want him around more?"

"I don't want to see him," he admitted and hated how his voice cracked.

"Why?"

"Because he doesn't look like Hiro. He looks different. And that hurts." A river of heat went through his cheek and Tadashi wiped the tear away as it became cold. "He's not the real one to me."

Mrs. Takachiho tapped her pen on her clipboard twice and then set them aside. "We've got a half-hour left," she said. "Come on, Tadashi. Let's talk about 3027."

* * *

Fifteen candles on the countertop, a giant tub of steaming water and cloth on the floor, and two matching SFIT jackets thrown over the new collection of kitchen utensils. Gogo was on the floor measuring out another cup of salt to add to the steaming water while Hiro tried to make heads or tails of the mess across the counter. He moved one of the candles out from under his nose and squinted at the fine print of an instruction manuel. "Always be sure to unplug the appliance prior to cleaning or storing… Not dishwasher safe." He peered down at Gogo. "Why would we get something not dishwasher safe?"

Gogo shrugged. "It had 'electric' in the name and you decided it would be better."

"This is ridiculous," Hiro declared. "Non-dishwasher safe pans, pots, these baking sheets, those spoons, these… things…" he slammed the item causing the annoyance down. "What's the point of the dishwasher?"

"Oh, since neither of us is willing to sit still and look pretty in this relationship, the dishwasher is trying to fill in."

Hiro snorted in agreement as he tore back the plastic covering some new plates. "I swear to heaven above if these say that they're not-" A pause. "They're not."

"We'll wash them anyway and if they survive, we'll keep doing that."

"And if they don't survive?"

Gogo looked up at Hiro with a raised eyebrow. "Uh… we'll get new plates. Duh."

Hiro sighed. "I guess that was pretty obvious."

Gogo poured the last bit of salt into the tub. The new bedspread they'd purchased was rough, but Gogo was sure if she let it soak in the salt long enough, it'd come out just as soft as the advertisement had claimed it would be.

Hiro kept murmuring up above as he unpackaged cups and bowls and silverware. "That's the issue with industrialization," he grumbled. "Everything is made fast, it has to be sold fast, if there aren't enough buyers then you go out of business. So you hold onto buyers by making sure your stuff doesn't last, making it cheaper and cheaper… so instead of paying $800 once you pay $20 every two years for the rest of your life."

"Oh dear. We've entered the rant portion of Hiro's rage scale." Gogo picked up the plates and moved them into a cupboard behind Hiro. Her hand paused on the door. "Have you called Tadashi today?"

Hiro's head snapped up. He looked like he'd been scared awake. "Uh… was I supposed to? I didn't think-"

"Just wondering…" Gogo shrugged off the shake in her shoulders. "He, uh, has been quiet. I don't really remember him being quiet."

She listened, trying to discern his movements as he turned around and drummed his fingers on the counter. It nearly scared the living daylights out of her when she felt his questioning touch on her back before she relaxed and he took that as permission to put his arms around her waist and lean his chest to her back. "Are you…" he began and Gogo automatically finished the question for him in her head. "…okay," "…worried," "…sad about it?"

The answer to all of those was yes.

"…having second thoughts?" Hiro finished and Gogo was beamed straight back to earth.

"No!" She exclaimed and put her hands on his underneath her rib cage. "No, no, I wasn't – I'm not. I never would – are you?"

"I'm not." He put his lips on her cheek and the touch calmed her back down from her panic. "Don't worry. I still like this thing."

"Oh. Good." She put a hand up, had a moment of hesitation, and then found his hair and tangled her fingers through it. "We must not be communicating very well. I've just been thinking… Tadashi might be feeling lonely now that you've moved out. So I was wondering if you'd talked to him… at all."

"He mentioned last time that he was still settling in."

"Yeah. Just… I think he's still disorientated." She tightened her fingers in his hair a moment and then drew away. Hiro let her go. When she turned, his face was dark.

"You and he… you didn't have anything going on, right?"

"No." Gogo's entire face grew tense. "I didn't date anyone in our group. You know that."

"I'm just checking. Because… you worry. You and Honey worry about him a lot."

"I worry about you." Gogo found a safe spot on Hiro's arm and squeezed. "I worry about you being sad or mad or… something because of him. Like you were when he came back."

"That was when I thought people were lying and when I had to realize that it was real and…" Hiro leaned back against the counter and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to accuse you. I just got insecure."

"It's… fine." Even though she was a little scared now, that he might continue to think that. "Uh, we… none of us dated each other. We weren't each other's type. The closest we got… once Wasabi and Fred went out for lunch… but nothing romantic."

"Relax, it doesn't matter." Hiro pretended to brush something off his shoulder and some of Gogo's worries were brushed aside with it. "It seriously was just a passing thought. I won't read into anything and I hope you won't either." He picked up her hand. "You're still my one-ring-girl."

Gogo threaded her fingers through his. She could feel his heartbeat in his thumb. "Well, you're my one-ring-guy," she whispered.

The air conditioning kicked in above their heads and blew down a blast of air that made the candle flicker and dance on the table. Hiro and Gogo both leaned their foreheads together and shut their eyes.

* * *

Sleep didn't want to come.

Tadashi rolled over, peered at the ceiling, and counted the divots in the sheetrock. Nothing. The sheets twisted at his hips as he tossed and turned until he found an uncomfortable resting place with one arm pinned behind his back and the other stretched up over his head so he could think.

The clock ticked its amusement at him. Stupid thing.

He shut his eyes as tight as he could, determined to not open them until the daylight woke him, and gave up as the headache that had plagued him all day took up root again. Just when he'd weeded it out. He gave up the fight, stared lazily at the wood grains of his headboard, and suddenly had the faint collection that the world was beginning to dim.

It dimmed and dimmed until it was so dark he thought that he might have died for good. What was the cause? Heart attack? The darkness was sort of comforting and heavy on his soul, weighing it down and there was this feeling like forest air moving through his lungs…

And then he realized he was looking up at the stars.

The roar of an engine in the distance prompted him to sit up. Four lights were cutting through the darkness, chasing away the shadows from the trees and shooing one large owl out of its hiding place with a mighty beat from its wings. It was coming from a pair of mountain bikes.

They barreled toward him, slowing down just slightly, and Tadashi stood still as they rolled up and stopped with the lights inches from his chest. They went right through him and shone on two wooden posts behind him, also illuminating a sitting area.

The person on the bike ripped their helmet off and shook their hair out. "Wow," Gogo said, jumping down. "I never want to do the boring dinner thing again."

"I thought you'd like this." Hiro said, removing his helmet and sitting it up on the bars of the back of his bike. "I'd never done it either."

Gogo paused with a hand on the handlebars of her bike that she slowly brought down to rest on her hip. A thought had struck her, and it didn't look like a pleasant one. "How much did this cost you?" she asked.

"An old favor from someone at Krei Tech." Hiro blew his bangs out of his face. "The truck's just down the road. Whenever you want to go home, I'll go drop you off."

Gogo narrowed her eyes and pinched her lips. Something was up. He couldn't tell what.

Hiro noticed it too, after a moment. He slid off his bike and put a hand on the seat of hers. "Is something wrong? Did you not have a good time?"

"I did," Gogo affirmed. "This is usually the part of the date where I get bribed."

"Bribed?"

"'I took you out and you had a great time so you owe me now'."

"Eh, you've saved my neck in enough fights that we can call it even."

The answer seemed to trouble Gogo even more. She reached into a pocket for a stick of gum and Tadashi watched her right hand brace into a fist at her side. When she had the stick out of the wrapper and in between her teeth, she asked: "Are you sure?"

"Geesh Gogo, I'm not some creep who's going to feel you up at the end of a date. I had a great time, you had a great time, I'm taking you to your place and not touching you."

"You're not going to make a big deal about how I don't want to kiss you?"

"I don't want to kiss you either. It's a first date."

Tadashi stared into the space between them, watching them both consider and analyze and think. The silence was broken when Gogo snapped her gum. "I want you to be a nice guy. I think you are. But I don't want to get burned."

"I don't want to get burned either." Hiro stepped out from around the bike but didn't dare close the distance. It was important distance. Those three feet were everything. "People have already tried to use me. Professor Callahan tried to use me. Krei tries to use me every day. Maybe I'm not a girl who deals with society's expectations of beauty and… all that crap… but I know what it's like to feel dirty. To be taken advantage of. I'm sixteen… my technology was stolen from under my nose and my brother paid the price for it. People try and steal from me every day. I don't want to steal anything from you. Not your time, not your space, not your body… I just… found someone I thought was cool. And now I want to see if this cool person is someone I can be cool with."

Gogo examined him. Analyzing. Integrating her thoughts into a seamless circuit. Then she picked up her helmet and turned it around in her hands. "We better get these bikes back."

"Whatever you want." Hiro turned back to his bike.

"Maybe we could do this again sometime?"

Tadashi watched his brother stop and turn. A smile spread across his face. "I'd like that," he said.

Gogo swung her leg over her bike and Tadashi watched her play with the straps on it for a moment. She opened her mouth as if she were going to say something, then shut it again. They both put their helmets on and Tadashi watched the lights turn out and head down the road. The further they got, the brighter the word became.

The sunlight blinded him as he came back into his own skin.

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Big Hero Six.


End file.
